A Living Language of the Dead? French Commemorative Inscriptions from Late Medieval England

Abstract

Commemoration of the dead in the French language was common in later medieval England but in the absence of a published corpus these inscriptional materials are little studied and poorly understood. By drawing together evidence from existing tombs, monumental brasses, and records of lost epitaphic material, the chronology, geographical spread, and textual traditions of French commemoration are revealed. This uncovers a significant body of evidence for the period 1390 to 1480 that offers parallels with the continued use of the French language into the fifteenth century within other social, professional, cultural, and administrative networks. Further, this newly constituted corpus establishes the extent of the production of French language commemorative materials in workshops in London and the regions, and the intersections of epigraphical texts and other forms of francophone textual activity in England.