In this volume

Julian M. Luxford, Tombs as forensic evidence in medieval England.
This article presents examples of the use of tombs as legal evidence (actual or potential) in medieval England. Clearly, not all tombs served or were designed to serve forensic functions, but the examples presented here suggest that the phenomenon was more pervasive than is currently acknowledged. The focus is on historical rather than literary evidence: the canonisation proceedings, laws devised with reference to tombs, and the use of tombs in later medieval property and privilege disputes and court of chivalry proceedings are all considered, along with the small quantity of surviving monumental and artistic evidence known to the author. The primary intention is to widen the frames of reference according to which the function of tombs can be considered.

Hadrien Kockerols, Defensor fidei: the iconography of the knight with a drawn sword on twelfth- and thirteenth- century monuments of the low countries.
Twelfth- and thirteenth-century tomb monuments in the Low Countries demonstrate a particular type of tomb iconography; viz: that of a knight brandishing a drawn sword. This imagery contrasts with the more conventional effigy, depicted in an attitude of prayer, which can be seen on non-military monuments, especially those of women. This type of representation seems to be specific to the region, although it is popularity had waned by the end of the thirteenth century. The present study concentrates on the iconography of tomb monuments in the Low Countries, although examples will be quoted from further afield.

Elizabeth Freeman, The tomb as a political narrative at the turn of the fourteenth century: reassessing the funerary monument and statue of Berardo Maggi, bishop of Brescia (d. 1308).
The funerary monument of Berardo Maggi, Bishop of Brescia, has been unjustly neglected in the discussions of medieval tomb sculpture. Yet there is no other contemporary Italian episcopal tomb to rival its sophistication and complexity. Although the theme of exequies belongs to standard iconography, the imagery of oath-swearing, also represented here , is innovative within the context of Italian episcopal tomb sculpture. Furthermore, while this monument has occasionally been cited alongside a fresco in the Broletto in Brescia, little has been made – despite its analogous iconography – of a statue of Bishop Maggi, erected in recognition of his services to the local Augustinian community, which now stands in Brescia's Santa Giulia museum. Examination of the tomb and the statue, which are here juxtaposed for the first time, provides an insight into Maggi; a prelate esteemed in his own lifetime and beyond for the historically significant role as peace negotiator that he played in hid feud-riven native city.

Rhianydd Biebrach,  'Our ancient blood and our kings': two early-sixteenth-century heraldic tombs in Llandaff Cathedral, Wales.
Owing to the under-representation of medieval Welsh funerary monuments in the standard works on the subject, we have little general appreciation of the monuments themselves or their place in the wider British artistic and cultural context of the Middle Ages. This essay seeks to remind the reader on this imbalance by exploring two pre-Reformation Tudor monuments to the Matthew family in Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff. While superficially very similar, the monuments in fact project two quite different visions of the family via their locations in the church and, most importantly, the heraldry on the tomb chests. The latter concern raises the question of whether it is possible to identify a specific type of 'Welsh tomb' in the late Middle Ages and early Tudor period.

Sally Badham, A painted canvas funerary monument of 1615 in the collections of the Society of Antiquaries of London and its comparators.
A painting in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London, which has formerly been regarded as a memento mori, is shown here to be a funerary monument painted on canvas. There are few other extant examples on canvas, but similar compositions to the Antiquaries' painting can be found painted on stone and wood panels and even painted directly onto plaster on the walls of churches. Few are similarly portable in character, however, which suggests that the Antiquaries' painting may have been commissioned for a reason other than as a permanent church fixture and that it may even have functioned in a broader commemorative capacity.

Atis V. Antonovics, The tomb of Lady Frances Waldegrave at Chewton Mendip (Somerset): new documentation on a late-Victorian sculptural commission.
The extant diaries of Lord Carlingford, forth husband of Frances Waldegrave (1821-79), which are held in the British Library, throw fresh light on the memorial chapel and tomb portrait in the parish church at Chewton Mendip (Somerset). They enable us to chart the detailed sequence of the negotiations between sculptor and patron, as well as the providers of the stained-glass window and metal grave enclosure. At the same time a parallel commemorative tablet was ordered for the church at Navestock (Essex). Contemporary reactions to the monuments are also recorded.

Cameron B. Newhan, Towards an inventory of church monuments in England.
The vast majority of the tens of thousands of monuments in English churches are undocumented and unrecorded. For the past twelve years a project that is photographically recording the majority of pre-1900 churches in England has been addressing this deficiency. The project had already completed over half the rural churches in the country and as part of the process has photographed a large number of monuments ranging from obscure brass inscription plates through to large, well-known displays by the greatest sculptors. The resulting photographic archive will form the basis for a database which will allow searches to be made on the building and their fittings. The database will include many aspects of church monuments including type, design features and the people associated with them.

Book Reviews

Nigel Saul, English church monuments in the middle ages: history and representation.

Sally Badham and Geoff Blacker, Northern rock: the use of Egglestone marble for monuments in medieval England.

Eva Leistenschneider, Die französische Königsgrablege Saint-Denis. Strategien monarchischer Repräsentation (1223-1461).

Antje Fehrmann, Grab und Krone. Königsgrabmäler im mittelalterlichen England und die posthume Selbstdarstellung der Lancaster.

Simon Roffey, Chantry chapels and medieval strategies for the afterlife.

Danielle Westerhof, Death and the noble body in medieval England.

John McNeill (ed.), King's Lynn and the Fens: medieval art, architecture and archaeology.

Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton (eds), Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales. Life, death & commemoration.

Scott L. Newstok, Quoting death in early modern England: the poetics of epitaphs beyond the tomb.

Oliver Meys, Memoria und Bekenntnis. Die Grabdenkmäler evangelischer Landesherren in Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation im Zeitalter der Konfessionalisierung.

Simon Marsden, Memento mori: churches and churchyards of England.

David Meara, Modern memorial brasses.

Sally Badham with photography and illustrations by Martin Stuchfield,  Monumental brasses.