Ottone II nel 'Paradisus' della Basilica Vaticana: una sepoltura imperiale di eccezione nella Roma del secolo X

The sepulchre of Otto II in the courtyard ('paradisus') of St. Peter’s Basilica is unparalleled in the history of the Romano-Germanic Empire, as no other medieval emperor found his last resting place within the monumental complex of the major church in Western Christianity. After describing the precise location and distinguishing features of Otto II’s tomb, this article identifies the court circles and influential figures around Otto II who could have conceived, planned, and brought to realization this unusual imperial sepulchre. Detailed considerations suggest that this tomb was intended to be understood as an 'imitatio Constantini', as shown through the reception and adaptation of the symbolic funerary code adopted by the other Ottonians (Henry I, Otto I, Otto III, and Henry II), whereby the ruler is buried in the church or monastery that he had founded or richly endowed. Otto II’s sepulchre could therefore have been designed to present this ruler as a 'novus Constantinus', buried in St. Peter’s as if he was its founder, Constantine the Great. This article also examines the liturgical service that was probably granted in the Vatican for the eternal salvation of Otto II. Finally, it explores the “postlife” ('Nachleben') of this imperial burial, as seen in eleventh-century sources and later texts produced in Rome until the demolition of Old St. Peter’s in the seventeenth century.