The north side of the friary church of Santa Croce once served as a cemetery. Tomb registers describe three separate sections: an uncovered portion along the road, a covered section along the church wall, and a third section against the Bardi chapel which terminated the north transept.
The oldest surviving Santa Croce sepoltuario describes the covered section as "Sepolture del cimitero vecchio di sop[ra] di v[er]so la via della giusti[zi]a le quali sono cop[er]te in prima," which corresponds to the portico that runs along the north exterior flank of the church and via di San Giuseppe, formerly known as the via della Giustizia. The portico has undergone several renovations, and the current configuration dates to a restoration campaign undertaken between 1888 and 1899. The tomb fragments that currently adorn the space were moved to the portico in 1981 from the church interior and south cloister.
For more on the complex history of this space see Giammarco Pandolfini and Emanuele Papa. “Il portico settentrionale della basilica.” In Tre capitoli per Santa Croce, edited by Massimiliano G. Rosito, 93–124. Florence: Città di vita, 2000.
Roofed porchlike spaces, open along at least one side and usually associated with an entrance, supported by columns and often surmounted by a pediment; porticoes may project from the main building mass or be recessed in it.
groups related by blood, marriage, and/or adoption
honoree
through the 1770s
Notes
[a] The marker was moved at some point to the first cloister south of the church and installed in the lower wall of the north loggia.
[b] Bernardo di Cinozzo purgatore certainly owned the old Stracciabende tomb before 1439, and it is likely that when he took possession, he removed reference to the former honoree. Curiously, Stefano Rosselli noted arms that were morphologically the same as those of the Stracciabende, but with different colors – seemingly red where the former was gold and white where it was blue. Could Bernardo have reused Rinuccio Stracciabende's sculpted arms but painted them to create a new family stemma for himself? Unfortunately the inscription was illegible by Rosselli's day making it difficult to know what, if anything, Bernardo did to the tomb after receiving rights to use it.
[c] The 1439 sepoltuario notes that Berto di Rinieri's tomb had passed to his grandson Alberto. His son Zanobi died around 1365 when Alberto was about ten years old. Despite the inheritance, Alberto had his own tomb in the church of Santa Croce.
[d] Stefano drew up his will in 1329 and may have installed the tomb then.
[e] The tomb inscription naming ser Zanobi was first mentioned by Stefano Rosselli in the mid-seventeenth century. The north cemetery seems to have been destroyed in the early 1780s.
[f] Caterina is named as her husband Francesco's heir on his tomb in S. Maria alle Selve, which carried the date August 2, 1383.
[g] According to Tratte records, Giuliano's father Salvestro di Lodovico di Lippo died between July 1st, 1423 and August 27th, 1424.
[h] In his testament dated February 20th, 1324 (o.s.), Lippo requested burial in the church of Santa Croce, where he had established the cemetery tomb with his brother Nanni.
[i] Salvestro's father Giuliano served the Sixteen in the first term of 1448.
[j] The Beni Culturali catalog notes that the inscription's capital letters bear resemblance to those carved in the second half of the fifteenth century, and it is impossible to know whether Lapo's name was present on the monument as early as 1341.
[k] Despite the certainty that Francesco would have inherited his father's tomb, he chose instead to be buried at Santa Maria alle Selve in Lastra a Signa.
[l] Jacopa is named as her brother Francesco's heir on his tomb in S. Maria alle Selve, which carried the date August 2, 1383.
[m] Stefano Rosselli noted in his sepoltuario compiled between 1650 and 1657 that the arms and inscription described in the 1439 and 1596 sepoltuari were no longer visible.
[n] Some sources name Tanuccio di Tano as the honoree while others say it is his father Tano di Betto whose name appeared in the inscription.
[o] It is likely that when Bernardo di Cinozzo purgatore took over Rinuccio Stracciabende's tomb, he removed reference to the former honoree. Curiously, Stefano Rosselli noted arms that were morphologically the same as those of the Stracciabende, but with different colors – seemingly red where the former was gold and white where it was blue. Could Bernardo have reused Rinuccio's sculpted arms but painted them to create a new family stemma for himself? Unfortunately the inscription was illegible by Rosselli's day making it difficult to know what, if anything, Bernardo did to the tomb after taking possession, a transfer recorded in the 1439 sepoltuario.
[p] Stefano drew up his will in 1329 and may have installed the tomb then.
[q] A slab with an inscription naming naming ser Zanobi's family as the Brunacci was first mentioned by Stefano Rosselli in the mid-seventeenth century. The north cemetery seems to have been destroyed in the early 1780s.
[r] According to the Beni Culturali catalog, the coat of arms dates to the fourteenth century while the inscription, which carries the date 1341, appears to have been added or recut in the fifteenth century.
[s] It is unclear whether Salvestro di Giovanni was a member of the family that sometimes used this name or if this was simply a toponymic for him and his father.
[t] The owners of the Santa Croce tomb may not belong to this lineage but rather have an ancestor named Rovaio.
