The Epitaph of Altamura ( it, Epitaffio di Altamura) is a monument located in Altamura, Southern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. According to historian Ottavio Serena, it was erected right after the visit in city, on 8 April 1807, of

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

(the elder brother of

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

), who had just become

king of Naples The following is a list of rulers of the Kingdom of Naples, from its first separation from the Kingdom of Sicily to its merger with the same into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Kingdom of Naples (1282–1501) House of Anjou In 1382, the Kin ...

. Berloco p. 263 According to more recent hypotheses, this monument was instead built in the year 1797, right after the visit of the kings Ferdinand IV and

Maria Carolina of Austria Maria Carolina Louise Josepha Johanna Antonia (13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. As '' de facto'' ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw th ...

in the city of Altamura. The commemorative monument is located in ''largo Epitaffio'' (Epitaph square). Although traditionally named

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

, it is not a funerary inscription but instead a commemorative monument.

Ottavio Serena's hypothesis

According to Ottavio Serena, Joseph Bonaparte was coming from the city of

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...

. He was returning to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, from where he had departed on 21 March of the same year. The representatives of the city of Altamura and a multitude of people went to meet and warmly welcomed Joseph Bonaparte, who stopped to greet the people in the square that was named ''largo Epitaffio''. Joseph Bonaparte stayed in Altamura in the palace of count Viti, he received the hereditary title "Prince of Altamura" and then left. On 9 April the king was in

Venosa Venosa ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the southern Italian region of Basilicata, in the Vulture area. It is bounded by the comuni of Barile, Ginestra, Lavello, Maschito, Montemilone, Palazzo San Gervas ...

, and on 12 April he was already back in Naples. Berloco p. 264 DuCasse, Lib. 6, p. 333

Michele Marvulli's hypothesis

According to more recent studies by the scholar Michele Marvulli (1996), this monument dates back to the year 1797, when the kings of the Kingdom of Naples Ferdinand IV and

visited the city of Altamura, as testified by a few sources. In support of this, Vitangelo Bisceglia's chronicles (unknown to Ottavio Serena) state that in 1799 the "royal army" placed two years earlier on the occasion of the visit of the kings was destroyed in the San Martino district (i.e. the area where the monument is located): Another point in support of this is that in Michele Rotunno's chronicle (relating to the events of 1799 to Altamura) the monument is cited in order to indicate the direction in which the fugitives were headed in the year 1799. Serena

Description

The monument originally contained an inscription, an imperial eagle symbol and a coat of arms. The inscription and the coat of arms were both erased following the restoration and the return of the

Bourbons The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spani ...

to Naples. The inscription is not readable anymore and the coat of arms is partly unrecognizable. Berloco p. 264 - ''La colonna e l'aquila si vedono anche oggi'' (Ottavio Serena)

References

Sources

* * * * {{Cite book, title=Mémoires et correspondence politique et militaire du Roi Joseph publiès, annotès et mis en ordre par A. Du Casse Aide De Camp de S. A. I. le prince Jérôme Napoléon , author=A. Du Casse , volume = third tome , page=333 , edition=2 , year=1854 , location=Paris , publisher=Perrotin, Libraire-editeur , language=French , ref=DuCasse , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ihgW5C1p-zwC&q=M%C3%A9moires+et+correspondance+politique+et+militaire+du+Roi+Joseph+publi%C3%A8s+tome+troisieme&pg=PP9 Monuments and memorials in Italy Altamura