Tombe dei Glossatori

Three stone sarcophagi stand perched on brick pillars in the narrow piazza outside the church of San Francesco. These tombs house the bodies of thirteenth-century law professors who taught at the University of Bologna. When Odofredo dei Denari died in twelve sixty-five, the city granted him this prominent outdoor burial site, a rare honor usually reserved for saints. It became a coveted final resting place for legal scholars, despite the church authorities complaining that these professors were teaching secular law on holy ground.