The article considers two Histrian 'danses macabres', that of Beram (Croatia, attributed to Vincent of Kastav, dated 1474) and that of Hrastovlje, probably created by his nephew and supposedly executed fifteen years later. Having identified some details presented by both cycles it is possible to compare them to the text of the first known danse macabre, appeared in the Carnage of Saints-Innocents in Paris in the 1420s, edited by Guyot Marchand. The comparison reveals a certain number of innovations and variations with respect to a same circulating model throughout Europe, even if many features of the edited text are also present in the two Histrian frescoes.