A rare medieval description of tombs was included in a treatise on ars dictaminis written during the first quarter of the 13th century by Boncompagno da Signa. Why did Boncompagno describe tombs in an epistolary treatise? The paragraph lies at the end of two chapters which depict the traditions of mourning and funerals in different countries and ages. They can be considered as linked with the precedent chapter on letters of condolence. Boncompagno explains in others treatises that it is essential for a dictator to have good understanding of the culture of the recipient of the letter. Those chapters also show the peculiar and impartial curiosity of Boncompagno for alien people, and his fervent interest in Antiquity. It is uncertain that the prototype described by Boncompagno could eventually precisely correspond to real funerary monuments. However we can find in the rare surviving or documented Roman tombs of the 11th and 12th centuries some elements of the Boncompagno’s description. Nevertheless the author rejects the idea expressed by some art historians that the fresco of a commendatio animae discovered in the low church of San Clemente could be part of a tomb. The author refuses as well to define this kind of scene, described by Boncompagno, as a particular judgment.< Leer menos