A chest tomb is essentially a box-shaped stone monument raised above ground level, designed to resemble a coffin or chest, and this one carries a Latin inscription rendered in Black Letter, the angular, dense script associated with medieval manuscripts and early print, used here in the early seventeenth century as a deliberate marker of solemnity and tradition.

The tomb is dated 1618 and commemorates Catherine Fitzgerald, who died that year, and Fulke Den, identified as the second son of D. Den, who survived her and died in 1626. The pairing of names, with Catherine's death date coinciding with the tomb's date, suggests the monument may have been raised for her and later served Fulke as well. The Fitzgerald name would have carried considerable weight in Kilkenny at this period, connected as it was to one of the most prominent Anglo-Norman dynasties in Leinster. Fulke Den's family background is less immediately traceable, but the commission of a inscribed Latin chest tomb placed them within the same stratum of society that marked status through permanent stone memorialisation. The inscription's use of Black Letter script, rather than the Roman typeface that was gradually displacing it in contemporary print culture, points to a self-conscious conservatism, a choice to signal learning and gravity through an older visual language.