Gerhard van Wou

Erfurt, Cathedral: Upper part of the Gloriosa from 1497

Gerhard van Wou [ vaʊ̯ ], also Geert Wou van Kampen , Gerhard Wou van Kampen , Gerhard de Wou (* around 1440 in Hintham ; † December 1527 in Kampen ) was a Dutch bell founder . He created the Gloriosa for Erfurt Cathedral in 1497 , which is generally considered to be his masterpiece.

Live and act

As the son of bell founder Willem van Wou, he came into contact with the craft of bell casting very early on.

From 1474 there is an entry in the citizen register of Herzogenbusch , in which he is called "Magister Gerardus de Woude" . From 1482 he is based in Kampen .

Today he is regarded as one of the most important bell founders of the late Middle Ages . Van Wou did not get rich just by casting bells, for example, he was referred to as "meyster Geryt bussengieter" (cannon founder) in bills from the city of Nijmegen , which suggests that he also performed other casting work.

Van Wou was the first in his field to consistently apply the law that says that with the same alloy and with equally proportioned ribs (longitudinal profile of a bell), the frequencies of the chimes are inversely related to the lower diameters of the bells. In this way he was able to calculate the required striking notes very precisely and thus also to hit them, while the striking of striking notes up to this point can be described as a stroke of luck. In 1505 he cast 13 bells for the Utrecht Cathedral in a complete scale ( diatonic ) from F sharp ⁰ to C sharp ² . In some inscriptions, the respective interval is mentioned, which refers to the sound of the big bell (f sharp ⁰ ). For example, on the fifth bell, Baptista says:

EST BAPTISTA IOANNES SONUS ET TONUS
DULCIS CUM DIAPENTE VENIO DEO
CHARUS SANCTA PATRUM LUX QZ FIDE FUI
ET SPE VASTI HEREMI DECUS
GERHARDUS DE WOU ME FECIT
ANNO DOMINI MCCCCCV.

The word diapente means fifth ; the sound of the bell is c sharp ¹ . Gerhard van Wou was also able to use the above procedure to add tonally matching bells to existing bells. In 1491 he fulfilled the order for St. Michaelis to Lueneburg four bells in b ⁰ , it ¹ , f ¹ and g ¹ present at two bells in the beat tones c ¹ and d ¹ supplement. Two bells have been preserved.

One of his students was Wolter Westerhues ; In St. Andreas zu Ahaus-Wüllen, bells from master and student hang united in one peal.

Works

Utrecht, Cathedral: Salvator from 1505 with the original Van Wou clapper

Recklinghausen, St. Peter: inscription detail of the St. Peter bell from 1500

"Blasius major", also called "Salvator", with 4.8 t the largest and heaviest bell of the Brunswick Cathedral , cast in 1502.

129 Van Wou bells are still known by name. Three bells are still completely preserved: in the Braunschweig Cathedral as well as in St. Peter in Recklinghausen and St. Pancratius in 's-Heerenberg.

Below is a list of well-known examples with name, strike tone and year of casting:

place	church	Casting year	Surname	Chime
Arnhem (NL)	St. Eusebius	1477	Martinus and Eusebius	b 0
Kampen (NL)	Nieuwe Toren	1481-83	Salvator Maria	b 0 as 0
Kampen (NL)	Nicolaas- of Bovenkerk:	1482	Martinus Peter and Paul	cis 1 ice 1
Osnabrück	Holy Cross (from the Osnabrück Cathedral )	1485	Beguinage bell
Hamburg-Altengamme	St. Nicolai Church	1487	Celsa	d 1
Amersfoort (NL)	St. Joris	1489	Georgius	c 1
Stendal	St. Mary	1490	Maria Lazy Anna	g sharp 0 h 0
Hohenberg-Krusemark		1490		g 1
stack		1492		f sharp 1
Great Rossau		1490		f sharp 1
Luneburg	St. Nicolai	1491	Maria	a 0
Luneburg	St. Michaelis	1492		it 1 g 1
Roadstead	St. Gudula	1492	former clock bell	e 2
Muenster	St. Lamberti	1493	Lambertus Maria	c 1 es 1
Oldenzaal (NL)	St. Plechelmus Basilica	1493	Maria	c 1
Demker		1495		g 2
Ahaus-Wessum	St. Martinus	1496	Martinus	dis
Ahaus-Wüllen	St. Andrew	1496		it 1
Erfurt	St. Mary's Cathedral	1497	Gloriosa	e 0
Erfurt	St. Severi	1497	Vincentia	h 0
Emmerich	St. Aldegundis	1498	Maria	h 0
What	St. Martinus	1499	Anna	cis 1
Recklinghausen	St. Peter	1500	Peter Johannes Maria	b 0 c 1 es 1
Zeerijp (NL)	Jacobuskerk	1500	Anna and Jacobus	cis 1
Eernewoude (NL)	Hervormde Kerk	1500		g 1
Braunschweig	St. Blasii Cathedral	1502	Blasius major Maria Johannes	a 0 h 0 c sharp 1
Naumburg	St. Peter and Paul Cathedral	1502		e 1
Haarlem (NL)	St. Bavo	1503	Roelant	a 0
Utrecht (NL)	Cathedral Church of St. Martinus	1505/06	Salvator Maria Martinus Michael Baptista Magdalena Jezus	fis 0 gis 0 ais 0 h 0 cis 1 dis 1 ais 1
Utrecht (NL)	Geertekerk	1506	Jezus	as 1
Lübeck	St. Jacobi	1507	Salichmaker (Salvator) also called "pulse bell"	a 0

literature

• Gerhard van Wou . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 259-260 .
• HARRI (pseudonym for Harald Richert): The older church bells of the former Bergedorf office. In: Lichtwark booklet No. 69. Verlag HB-Werbung, Hamburg-Bergedorf, 2004, ISSN  1862-3549 .
• Claus Peter: The bells of the master Gherhardus de Wou, the musical model of the Frankfurt cathedral bells. In: Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch. Publishing house Dr. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt a. M. 1986, pp. 355-405.
• Robert Körner: Geert van Wou. In: Messages from the Association for Hamburg History. 1907, pp. 233-236 ( uni-hamburg.de ).

Web links

Commons : Geert van Wou  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Full ringing of all bells in Utrecht Cathedral

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Utrecht Klokkenluiders Guild: Ioannes Baptista (Dutch, description of the bell klokkenluiders.nl )
2. ↑ Claus Peter: The bells of the master Gherhardus de Wou, musical model of the Frankfurt cathedral bell. In: Konrad Bund (ed.): Frankfurter Glockenbuch. Publishing house Dr. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt a. M. 1986, pp. 380-383.
3. ↑ Claus Peter: The bells of the master Gherhardus de Wou, musical model of the Frankfurt cathedral bell. Pp. 384-385.
4. ↑ Claus Peter: The bells of the master Gherhardus de Wou, musical model of the Frankfurt cathedral bell. P. 356.
5. ↑ Claus Peter: The bells of the master Gherhardus de Wou, musical model of the Frankfurt cathedral bell. Pp. 356, 374-377.