Wall monument

The National Monuments Service's description

In the graveyard of St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A Renaissance mural monument of John Rothe FitzPiers (d. 1620) and Rose Archer (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 101; Loeber 1981, 290; Phelan 1993; 1996, 177; Tait 2002, 80-1; Cockerham 2009, 355). The tomb was originally built into the N wall of the Holy Trinity Chapel, between the N aisle and the W wall of the N transept, which was founded by John Rothe FitzPiers in 1612. The chantry chapel was demolished in the mid-18th century, leaving the tomb freestanding. The floor and a series of stone-lined graves within the chantry were partially excavated (12E0314) in 2015, revealing the setting for the Rothe tomb as well as a stone-lined grave (not excavated) underneath (Ó Drisceoil 2019; 2020, 173-5). The tomb was deconstructed and moved in 1820 to its present location in the N wall of the churchyard, to E of Alms Houses (Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 101).
The tomb (H 3.80m; Wth 2.86m), built of fossiliferous limestone, comprises three tiers: a chest tomb, with an arched half tester above it, which is in turn surmounted by a two part entablature. The lowest tier is in the style of an chest-tomb with a plain mensa on a front panel divided into four compartments, each of which is decorated with symbols of the passion. It is partially buried in earth and abutted by paving. The panels are flanked on either side by a truncated urn and are separated by urns apart from the central panels which are defined by a Renaissance pilaster. Each panel contains symbols of the passion beneath stylised Renaissance semi-circular arches and fluted Doric columns/pilasters. The four panels from right to left depict (Phelan 1993):
1. An ear and the sword that cut it off, the jug containing the water that Pilate used to wash his hands and the bag with the thirty pieces of silver.
2. The pillar of flagellation, Peter’s cock and the scourges.
3. The cross, the crown of thorns, a hammer, pincers, a sponge, the spear of longinus, a ladder and the chalice.
4. Three covered cups, dice a seamless garment (maybe Veronicas towel) and a hand holding a plant.
A cable moulding defines the architrave below an enriched frieze of Rinceau (acanthus?).
The middle storey is a triple-arched half-tester of shouldered round-headed arches on plain hexagonal columns with moulded capitals and bases. The columns rest on the plain ledger slab of the lowest tier. The back of this section of the monument is occupied by a panel framed by a raised border of stylised cable moulding. Inscribed in false-relief on the left and right of a Latin cross is the following Latin inscription (transcribed by Carrigan (1905, Vol. 3, 101)):
Hic. Jacet. Joannes. Rothus. Petri. filius. civis. praetorius. civitatis. Kilkeniae.
qui. sacellum. hoc. cu[m]. Monume[n]to. sepulchrali.
pro. se. urore. liberisque. ac. posteris. suis. fieri. fecit. an[n]o.
salutis.1612. Ipse. vero. non tam obiit quam abiit 31 die mensis
Januarii ano. Domini M° Dc. xx° nec non Rosa Archera carissima
eius conjur quae discessit magis qua[m] decessit 8 die me[n]sis [ ]
A° Dii 16[ ]. quorum animabus propitetur Deus.
Translation (Phelan 1993):
Here lies John Rothe son of Peter. citizen and mayor of the city of Kilkenny who caused this chapel (shrine) to be built with its sepulchre and monument for himself and his wife, children and descendants, in the year of salvation 1612. He himself indeed did not so much die as depart on the 31st day of the month of January in the year of Our Lord 1620, and Rose Archer his dearest wife who also dep[arted] rather than died on the 8th day of the month [ ] in the year of Our Lord 16[ ]. To their spirits may God show favour.
On the side-panels of the central inscription are Saints Peter (right) and Paul (left), incised. Both are depicted within stylised Renaissance semi-circular arches above fluted Doric columns/pilasters. Above the left and right of each arch is a stylised oak? leaf motif.
The top tier comprises an inscribed panel flanked on the left and right by a pilaster and volute. Above the volutes are the stag trippant of the Rothes in addition to plant motifs and possibly symbols of the passion on the right. The whole lower order rests on a simply moulded architrave.
The top panel carries a false-relief Latin inscription in Roman lettering flanked on the left and right by stylised ‘V’s:
MAGNA SVIS LINQVENS MONVMENTA
MINORIBVS HAECCE, MAXIMA MAJORVM
SYMBOLA ROTHVS HABET
Translation:
This holds a great monument for his descendants an outstanding symbol of the greatness of the Rothes.
The lower panel the frieze - is also inscribed in false-relief though in Latin blackletter. Carrigan (1905, Vol. 3, 100-101) recorded the inscription thus:
SYMBOLUM + SALVTIS
Ortus. quaeque. suos. redolent. animantia. primos.
Et. redit. in. cinerim. qui. fuit. ante. cinis.
Mens. superas. nunc. a[m]bit. opes. quae. era[m]biit. imas.
Nempe. sui. memorem. structilis. urna. facit.
Ast. redibiba. olim. quando. urna. refuderit. ossa.
Juncta. animis. Deus. o. farit. ut. astra. petant.
Translation (Phelan 1993):
Of Signs and Salvation
All living things give forth the fragrance of their first beginnings and ash returns to ash as it was before. The soul, which sought after riches on earth, now strives for heavenly treasures. And when the urn shall have given up our ashes, may our resurrected bodies, O God, reach the stars.
The monument is attributed to the Kerin school of monumental sculptors by Phelan (1996, 177).

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 9 January 2023

References

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.

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

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.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2019 Excavations at St. Mary's Church and Church Lane, Kilkenny 12E0314. Unpublished final report for Kilkenny Archaeology.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2020 ‘Yet notin is more certaine than death, nor uncertaine, than the houre theirof': excavations in the chantry chapels of St. Mary's church, Kilkenny’, in C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds.), The Town in Medieval Ireland in the light of recent archaeological excavations, 161-84. Bray. Wordwell.

Phelan, M. 1996 The O'Kerin School of Monumental Sculpture in Ossory and Its Environs in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 126, 167-181.