Funeral Procession for Leopold I

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Esatta relazione del dolorosissimo funerale della felice memoria dell’augustissimo, potentissimo, et invittissimo imperatore de’ Romani Leopoldo primo il grande [Exact Relationship of the Most Painful Funeral, of the Happy Memory, of the Most Sacred, Most Powerful, and Most Invincible Roman Emperor Leopold I] (Rome, 1705). Stitched together with a similarly titled broadside containing an engraving “Si Stampa da Luigi Neri in piazza Nauona” [From the press of Luigi Neri in piazza Nauona]. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2011- in process

This small bifolio and broadside commemorate the funeral ceremony for Leopold I (1640-1705), Holy Roman Emperor (1658-1705), King of Bohemia (1656-1705) and of Hungary (1655-1705).

According to Mark Hengerer’s The Funerals of the Habsburg Emperors in the Eighteenth Century, “In 1705, only an hour after the death of Leopold I (1658-1705), the High Steward … and the Lord Chamberlain … discussed the preparations for the lying-in-state, the post mortem, the embalming and robing of the corpse, provision for a first coffin and receptacles für the heart and for the coffin, the fitting of the Knight’s Chamber … with altars and black cloths, the guards, and the music. The rest of the arrangements were discussed at a council meeting with other court officials on the next day. At this meeting, the ceremonial records of r657 (concerning the death of Ferdinand IV) were read, and thus became, with only a few variations, the guidelines for the funeral of Leopold L

A nice compliment to the volume: Castrum doloris quod immortali gloriae, et sacratissimis manibus Leopoldi Magni: augustissimi Romanorum imperatoris, Hungariae et Bohemiae regis, archiducis Austriae, &c. &c. ([Würzburg, Germany]: Typis Joannis Michaëlis Kleyer, universitatis typographi, [1705]) Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 2010-0048Q

See also Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly’s essay, “The Early Modern Festival Book: Function and Form,” in Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004). Marquand SA GT3530 .E87 2004