Wall monument

The National Monuments Service's description

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. Renaissance mural monument of Nicholas Knaresborough fitz William (d. 1619) and Rose Rothe set into concrete wall built c. 1960 in the N transept of the church (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 92; Cockerham 2009, 357, Loeber 1981, 289). Prior to its move to the N transept it was attached to near the W end of the N wall of the chancel (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 92).
The monument, built of fossiliferous limestone, comprises four tiers (H 4.8m; Wth 1.9m): a stylised altar beneath the main body of the tomb the half-tester, which in turn rests below an entablature which is crowned by the uppermost tier of a cartouche and finial. The uppermost storey, the crown, is surmounted by a finial decorated with a skull and crossbones beneath a chalice in false relief. The finial crowns a cartouche with an achievement of arms of Knaresborough and Rothe between two obelisks; at the base of each obelisk is a coat of arms of Knaresborough on the right and Rothe on the left. A blank rectangular inset panel between two raised volutes lies below the cartouche and rests on the second tier, the entablature. This comprises a projecting architrave beneath a blank, flat frieze which in turn rests below a projecting cornice. The central zone and half-tester of the tomb incorporates a round-headed arch flanked by Corinthian columns beneath the entablature. The capitals and base are decorated with gold leaf. The back wall beneath the arch carries an incised inscription which is incised and gilded in gold. It is in Latin, both in Roman capitals and a running hand:
D. O. M.
NICOLAVS . KNARESBROVGH . GVLIELMI . FILIVS.
ex senatoria huius urbis familia
summo inter cives magistratu functus
vir prudens, pius, providus, hospitalis,
mortis et immortalitatis memor
sibi, uxori ROSAE ROTHE et posteris
vivens valensq.
posuit.
Depositus tandem hie ipse est
Apposita et dicta coniux.

Sed heus tu,
Marmoreo exultas cur, mors incauta, trophaeo
Si cineri leferas quod fuit ante cinis.
Pone supercilium de te magis ista triumphant
Non fastiditae saxa parata neci.
Structurae qui cupis hunc annum cape
MDCXXIX.
Instructioni nulla dies pereat.
The lowest tier is a small altar above a moulded plinth which sits on a fan-motif coloured with green and gold paint.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 9 January 2023

References

Cockerham, P. 2009 My body to be buried in my owne monument: the social and religious context of Co. Kilkenny funeral monuments, 1600-1700. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 109C, 239-365.

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Loeber, R. 1981 Sculptured memorials to the dead in the early seventeenth century Ireland: a survey from Monumenta Eblanae and other sources. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 81C 11, 267-93.