La tomba della clarissima femina Candida († 585) nella chiesa di Sant’Andrea a Nilo a Napoli

In the context of Late Antique burials in the city of Naples, particular significance is attributed to the tomb of the clarissima femina Candida, who passed away at the age of 50 on September 10, 585, as evidenced by the inscription engraved on her sarcophagus located in an arcosolium behind the main altar of the Church of Sant’Andrea a Nilo. This inscription, which is being systematically analysed for the first time within its graphiccultural, historical, hagiographic, and archaeological context, designates Candida’s tomb as the oldest privileged burial that can be dated ad annum within an urban place of worship in Naples. Its placement in Sant’Andrea a Nilo facilitates an investigation into the relationship between burials and urban churches, a somewhat elusive theme that, for the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods, had previously been only sporadically explored in this city. This testimony is of particular importance also in relation to the foundation of the homonymous deaconry, a topic that this article begins to address while awaiting a multidisciplinary investigation into the Neapolitan deaconries and their development in the Late Antique and Medieval periods.