The chest of memory: the funeral rites of Maria Álvarez de Xèrica and her burial in the Convent of Santa Catarina in Barcelona

The point of departure for this article is the small wooden chest that the Countess of Empuries, Maria alvarez de Xerica (c. 1310-1374), commissioned to hold the instructions for the annual commemorations of her death. I address the wills, tomb, death, funeral rites, and anniversary celebrations of the countess as a grand performance, a work deployed over space and time. In addition, I focus on the agency of the memory containers: chests, tomb, boxes. The aim of this exploration of the acts, desires, objects, and people that made up this performance is to understand them not only in and of themselves, but as parts of a network. The study reveals the potential of such a network to construct memory by forging a constellation of nodes of objects but also of family ties, and political and social consciousness.

Automated summary

The article explores the wills, tomb, death, funeral rites, and annual celebrations of Countess Maria alvarez de Xerica as a grand performance. It also examines the agency of memory containers and their potential to construct memory networks.