Reading between the Lines: A 17th Century Corpus of Funeral Inscriptions from Odense Revisited

The article presents a reading in context of the manuscript, Monvmenta et
Inscriptiones Otthinienses Uberioribus Historicis et Genealogicis
Illustratæ Notis, composed c. 1679 by Jens and Jacob Bircherod, and
comprising 325 inscriptions from churches and profane buildings in Odense.
In the corpus, Danmarks Kirker. Odense Amt (1990–2001) the collection
proved an invaluable guide to Late Medieval and Early Lutheran funeral
monuments, the amount of which during the subsequent centuries was
reduced by more than 75%. However, a conspectus of the material in toto has
never been undertaken. The following lines aim at presenting a preliminary
survey of commemorative patterns in a major Danish urban community,
equally taking into account changing confessional practices across the
watershed of the Lutheran Reformation. Focus will be directed towards 139
examples from c. 1475–1618, representing different social groups, men and
women, ranging from members of the nobility and upper strata of the clergy,
the municipal corporation and the learned elite to more ordinary citizens,
craftsmen or clergymen.