Marble graves

The marble graves of Valletta, by Petra Bianchi:

In his fascinating book ‘Memento Mori’, the researcher Dane Munro has painstakingly translated the inscriptions of the tombstones of the Knights into English, offering contemporary readers who are not familiar with Latin a unique insight into the thoughts, fears and aspirations of the Knights. Munro’s text is accompanied by beautiful photographs by Maurizio Urso, and is published by MJ Publications. Spread over the grand floor of St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta (see picture), the rich designs, colours, textures and exquisite veining of marble ledger stones create the effect of a painting. The church is lavishly paved with the finely crafted tombstones of high-ranking Knights of the Order of St. John, who lived and died in Malta during the Order’s reign over the island from the 16th to the 18th century.

Many of these decorated marble ledger stones were commissioned by the deceased themselves well before their death, to ensure that their place in the church, as well as in the after-life, would be secure and also fitting to their rank in the social hierarchy. The elaborate designs and inscriptions were usually executed to their own specifications, which was common practice at that time. In his well-known poem ‘The Bishop orders his Tomb at St Praxed’s Church’ (1845), Robert Browning satirised his Renaissance Bishop’s desire to plan his tomb to outshine that of his rival Gandolf, who has “paltry onion stone”, an inferior type of marble that flakes, on his grave in the same church.

The Bishop warns and begs his illegitimate sons not to trick him and use “beggar’s mouldy travertine” on his grave once he is dead; instead he desires them to place a lump of stunning blue lapis lazuli in his hands, and to use “peach-blossom marble … rosy and flawless”, dazzling jasper, and a bronze frieze in bas-relief to contrast with deep black marble above. The Knights of St. John commissioned famous and established architects and artists, such as Romano Carapecchia and Francesco Zahra, to design their own tombstones. A sketch of the design would first be drawn out and then modified and approved by the Knight himself, with the marbles to be used, mostly imported from Italy, carefully chosen for their hues and textures...