De Sepvlchrorvm Titvlis

Abstract

The present paper aims to comment on the perspective presented by the Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti regarding epigram, inscription, and epitaph in Chapter IV of Book VIII of the architectural treatise De Re Ædificatoria. This study begins with Alberti’s viewpoint, surveying, through intertextuality, the potential sources, and epigrammatic traditions with which the author engages in this passage, providing a concise overview of the genre’s history, tracing its earliest origins from ancient Greece, its practice in Rome, and its revival by Renaissance humanists. This historical context will facilitate a more precise examination of whether Alberti incorporates elements from a singular tradition or draws from multiple ones. Finally, we will seek to gather here both what Alberti as well as the modern literary criticism, although lacking an explicit definition, understand by epitaph.