Tomb of the priest Bruno

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Tomb of the priest Bruno at Hildesheim Cathedral

The tomb of the priest Bruno is an outstanding Romanesque tomb thanks to its pictorial program and stone carving art . It was built after 1194 and is located on the south wall of the choir of Hildesheim Cathedral, not far from the Thousand-Year Rose Tree .

Bruno is attested as a member of the Hildesheim Cathedral Chapter in the role of waiter and as a founder in documents from the years 1181–1194. No further information is known about his biography.

The grave slab, which is more than two meters high and divided into three fields, is unusually lively and expressive.

The lower field of view, which takes up about half of the total area, shows the deceased, already wrapped in funeral robes, with eyes closed but smiling face. He is surrounded by six smaller people, depicted on the side, who bid him farewell and mourn him: two clerics almost tenderly lay him to rest; four poor and sick people, including a woman, attend the funeral and show him their gratitude and admiration by touching and kneeling. Above the picture is BRVNO.PR (ES) B (YTE) R - Bruno, priest .

The middle image shows the soul of the deceased in the form of an unclothed child with a blissful expression and hands open in adoration. It is carried to heaven by two angels floating sideways in a cloth .

The upper picture, vaulted by a clover leaf arch , the middle curve of which is also the nimbus of the cross , shows Christ as judge and redeemer who receives the deceased with the gesture of blessing and tells him the word that can be read on the book in his left hand: VENITE BENED (ICTI) PATRIS MEI - Come, you blessed ones of my Father ( Mt. 25:34).

Other Latin inscriptions unfold this statement:

  • under the figure of Christ:
    Q (VO) D.VNI.EX.MI (NIMIS) .M (EIS) .FE (CISTIS) .M (IH) IF (ECISTIS)
    What you did to one of the least of me, you did to me ( Mt. 25.40).
  • Inscription of the plate (two hexameters with end rhyme ):
    + BRVNONI.CVIVS.SPECIEM.MONSTRAT.LAPIS.ISTE
    QVI.SVA.PAVPERIBVS.TRIBVIT.DA GAVDIA.CHRISTE
    To Bruno, whose picture this stone shows,
    who distributed his to the poor, give joys, Christ.

literature

  • Christian Schuffels: The Brunograbmal in Hildesheim Cathedral. Art and history of a Romanesque sculpture , Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-2255-4
  • Christian Schuffels: The tomb of Presbyter Bruno in the Hildesheim cathedral cloister , Göttingen Contributions to Art History Vol. 5, Münster 1997, ISBN 978-3-8258-2661-1
  • Christian Schuffels: The tomb of the priest Bruno - the stone testament of a Hildesheim canon , in: Ego sum Hildensemensis. Bishop, cathedral chapter and cathedral in Hildesheim 815 to 1810 , ed. by Ulrich Knapp, Petersberg 2000, pp. 321-330
  • Adolf Bertram : History of the Diocese of Hildesheim , Bd. 1, Hildesheim 1899, p. 207f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Some letters are destroyed; the fifth (and sixth) of PAVPERIBVS seem to have spelling mistakes; CHRISTE is represented with the Greek abbreviation XPE; Text here after Bertram, p. 207

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