Actuated by a similar sentiment, Mrs. Anna Margaret Birkbeck, of Inverness Terrace (who died July 2, 1877, and whose will and two codicils, dated January, 1868, were proved on 29th of July, 1877), directs that the letters of her late daughters, of her late son, and of her late husband, both before and after her marriage, be buried with her.
WILL OF L. CORTUSIO, JURISCONSULTUS OF PADUA
We are indebted to several sources for the following testamentary document: mention is made of it by the celebrated Paolo de Castro; by Scardeon, who gives it more in detail in his “Vies des Jurisconsultes de Padoue,” book ii., chap. viii.; in P. Garasse’s “Doctrine Curieuse,” page 912; and in Dreux de Radier’s “Recréations Historiques,” tome i., page 232.
By his last will and testament, the testator in question, Messer Lodovico Cortusio, forbids any of his friends and relatives to weep at his funeral. He among them who shall be found so weeping shall be disinherited; while, on the other hand, he who shall laugh most heartily shall be his principal heir and universal legatee. It would have been superfluous to address to such a man Young’s apostrophe--
“Lorenzo, hast thou ever weighed a sigh, Or studied the philosophy of tears?”
It is quite evident he appreciated their value.
The testator next prohibits that his house or the church in which he is to be buried should be hung with black, desiring, on the contrary, that it shall be strewn with flowers and green branches on the day of his funeral. While his body should be borne to the church, he ordered that music should take the place of tolling bells. All the musicians (or minstrels) of the town were to be invited to his burial, however, the number was to be limited to fifty, and were to walk with the clergy, so many to precede, and so many to follow the body, and they were to make the air ring with the sound of lutes, violins, flutes, hautboys, trumpets, tambourines, and other musical instruments; the performance was to wind up with a hallelujah as for an Easter rejoicing, and for their services each was to receive the pay of half-a-crown. The body, enclosed in a bier covered with a cloth of divers colors which were to be bright and striking, was to be carried by twelve young girls habited in green, who were to sing cheerful and lively songs. To each of them the testator bequeathed a certain sum as her dowry. Young boys and girls were to accompany the procession carrying branches or palms, and were to wear on their heads crowns of flowers, while their voices were to join in chorus with those of the bearers. All the clergy belonging to the church, attended by a hundred torch-bearers, were to precede the procession, with all the monks in the town, except those whose habit was black--the express desire of the testator being either that they should wear a light-colored costume or refrain from attending, in order not to sadden the spectacle by an appearance of mourning. The executor appointed by this singular testator was solemnly charged to carry out all these directions in their fullest detail, or was to have no participation in the beneficial clauses of the will. Ludovico Cortusio died on July 17, 1418, Festival of St. Alexis. Strange to say, his wishes were conscientiously complied with. He was buried in the church of Sta. Sophia, at Padua, the ceremony having the appearance rather of a wedding than of a funeral.
