Of all the remains of Angevin Naples that have come down to us, few have received so little attention as the large series of tombs and tomb-slabs preserved in the city's churches and museums. With the exception of certain of the royal tombs, almost none has been the object of detailed study. And yet, not only do they offer a valuable record of the persons and families commemorated, but they constitute an unrivalled repertory of the taste, costume and craftsmanship of fourteenth-century Naples.
The present note is intended to be no more than a brief introduction to the more extended study which we hope one day to be able to undertake. For this purpose we have chosen a few characteristic examples from what is the largest single group, the tomb-slabs and effigies of persons in military costume. The tombs selected belong to the earlier part of the century, and we have deliberately excluded the more elaborate of them, since they involve problems of style and artistic attribution which cannot usefully be discussed except in the context of a more general study. With this exception the monuments that form the subject of this note may be taken to offer a representative picture of the tombs of the Neapolitan nobility during the first half of the fourteenth century.