Identifier: christianmonumen00bout_0 (find matches)
Title: Christian monuments in England and Wales : an historical and descriptive sketch of the various classes of sepulchral monuments which have been in use in this country from about the era of the Norman conquest to the time of Edward the Fourth
Year: 1854 (1850s)
Authors: Boutell, Charles, 1812-1877
Subjects: Sepulchral monuments Sepulchral monuments
Publisher: London : G. Bell
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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commemorate two individuals, bears one cross only. 46 CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS This slab appears to havebeen executed towards theclose of the fourteenth cen-tury. The taste for rhymingLatin, strangely prevalentin the monumental inscrip-tions of the middle ages, isexemplified in this epitaphof the merchant Richard.So strong, indeed, was thepassion for this species ofcomposition, that the senseappears to have been reck-oned altogether subordinateto the rhyme ; and, in someexamples, we have evidentproof that no little painsand trouble were bestowedupon producing this much-desired similarity of sound,while the meaning of thelegends was so far disre-garded, that it now requiresno little ingenuity to disco-ver it. Inscriptions of thiskind were introduced intothe composition of the finestmonuments; and they thusproduce a striking contrastbetween the literature ofthe period, and the puretaste then exhibited in mo-numental art. I may here describe thecelebrated slab of blackmarble, the memorial of
Text Appearing After Image:
o a.p. 1280, Monumental Slab of Gnndrada, Countess <5e Warenne,Lewes. IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 47 the Princess Gundrada, wife of William, first Earl de Warenne,and fifth daughter of the Conqueror, which is now preserved inthe Church of St. John the Baptist in Southover at Lewes. Thestone, which has lost a small portion of its lower end, mea-sures five feet five inches long, two feet broad at the head, andtwenty inches at the foot. It bears an inscription so arranged asto form a border to the entire composition, and also to divide theupper face of the slab into two compartments. These compart-ments are entirely filled with rich and delicate ornaments of ara-besque design, the workmanship of which is most masterly. Inconsequence of the fracture, the inscription is imperfect. Happily,however, enough of it remains to render the sense complete. Itis as follows :— STIRPS . GVNDRADA . DVCV . DEC . EVI . NOBILE . GERMEN .INTVLIT . ECCLESIIS . ANGLORV . BALSAMA . MORV .MARTIR .... .... VIT .

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