The generic architectural term “mausoleum” denotes a representational funerary structure, and the word is still chiefly used in this sense today (Tomb). Other meanings were also current in the early modern period, falling largely into disuse as the phenomenon they described disappeared. A mausoleum, for instance, was also an ephemeral funerary edifice (Latin castrum doloris, “castle of grief”), and the term formed the basis for the literary genre of funerary panegyric. It also referred to reliquaries of saints (Italian arca).

The original “Mausoleum” (Latin mausoleum, from the …