Lullus bell
The Lullus bell is the oldest cast bell in Germany that can be dated . According to the inscription, it was made in 1038. It is cast in a thin beehive rib and hangs in the Katharinenturm of the Bad Hersfeld monastery ruins .
Since October 2002, after renovation work in the bell tower, the Society of Friends of the Stiftsruine e. V. can ring again (cable pull). The original clapper was exchanged for a newly forged one. The original clapper has been hanging in the city museum ever since.
The Lullus bell was rung for centuries at the beginning of the Lullus Festival, after which it was finally given its name. Until the renovation, the bell was only rung once a year for this festival. Since then, it has been heard on special occasions, such as the Lullus Festival in the week of October 16 (the anniversary of Lullus' death ), on Sunday evening after the torchlight procession and the address in the monastery ruins, at midnight at the turn of the year and at church celebrations (Christmas, Easter Sunday, Pentecost Sunday ) at 12 noon.
Technical and sound data
| Chime |
Diameter (mm) |
Height without crown (mm) |
Total height (mm) |
Mass (kg) |
| h 0 / c 1 | 1120 | 1070 | 1440 | ≈1000 |
inscription
The Lullus bell has almost vertically rising flanks with a strongly curved hood. The hood has three raised bars. Between the middle and the lower web there is a recessed font about three centimeters high and cast over the entire circumference of about 2200 mm. It consists of ancient Roman lapidary letters ( capitals ) with a total of 84 characters and combinations of characters. The script is reproduced in abbreviated form by means of syncopation . This means that the writer shortened the text by 30 characters by omitting letters. Further reductions were achieved by bundling nine letters (six duets and three thirds), whereby the writer shortened the text by a further twelve characters. This is also the reason why you can only read three words at first glance. However, they make it possible to recognize the inscription as a text written in Latin . In addition, deciphering the inscription makes it more difficult that it was subsequently corrected in the mold at one point, which made the letters in the cast illegible there. Furthermore, there is an unchanged typographical error in the text, and there is no marked beginning of the inscription.
Here are the original characters as they can be seen on the bell:
| FVDIT .. .. NDIDIT .R.NEATIVER.E IS.V |
| GWENON HOC VAS ABBATI NONENSE .. A ... |
| IS BAP..E SDANE DEO MARENDAD MEGINHARIO |
In analogy to inscriptions on early medieval monuments, it is assumed that the text was written in the classical meter of hexameters . If you put the above text in this meter, you get a verse in three hexameters to the following text:
| FVDIT (ME), (CO) NDIDIT TRINITATI VERAE I (VS) SV |
| GWENON HOC VAS ABBATI NONENSE SECVNDI ANNI |
| IS BAPT (IS) T (A) E MANE. DEO, MARENDA, D MEGINHARIO |
Translated, this results in the following content, starting from the second part of the third hexameter:
| Venerable Maria! For the abbot, Mr. Meginhar, |
| Founded and poured me, this bell, Gwenon by order, |
| God, to the glory of the true Trinity, |
| In the ninth month of the second year |
| In the morning, early in the day, Johannes Baptist. |
This text and its translation were first published in the Fuldaer Geschichtsbl Blätter (39th year, 1963, issue No. 2). The authors of the work "Two bell inscriptions: 1) The Lullus bell in Bad Hersfeld; 2) The so-called Bleisack zu Pößneck (Thuringia)" are Dr. Fritz Hugo Schlippe and Wolfgang Schlippe. A reprint of this work is in the holdings of the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe. The work by J. Burkhardt from 1913 is given as the literature source in the above work.
The "Lullus Bell" was therefore consecrated to Our Lady. So it is a "bell of Mary". It names the founder and the incumbent Hersfeld abbot. The exact date (June 24, 1038) on which the bell was cast can also be determined from the time of his absence.
There are campanologists and epigraphers who doubt the correctness of the above reading of the inscription. In his essay , the Magdeburg theologian Burkhardt provided an interesting alternative that also assumes three hexameters, but does not require omissions
- Baptistes anedi commendat evangelus INRI
- Maynharius fundat me condidit ast lineat me
- Brother Sygwinus in hoc vas arte latinus.
literature
- Louis Demme: Chronicle of Hersfeld, Volume 1 . Published by Hans Schmidt, Hersfeld 1891.
- Manfred Schaake: Lullus bell. With a new clapper to a new sound . In: Hersfeld-Rotenburg. Home calendar of the district of Hersfeld-Rotenburg , vol. 45 (2001), pp. 94–95.
- Elisabeth Ziegler: The territory of the Imperial Abbey of Hersfeld from its beginnings to the Hessian district order of 1821 , partial print: The prehistory of the territory , Universitäts-Buchdruckerei Joh.Aug. Koch, Marburg 1928, pages 38 to 58.
- Fritz Hugo Schlippe and Wolfgang Schlippe (-Musoke): Two bell inscriptions: 1) The Lullus bell in Bad Hersfeld. 2) The so-called Bleisack zu Pößneck (Thuringia) . In: Fuldaer Geschichtblätter , 39th year, 1963, issue No. 2.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a bell forged from two iron sheets from the 9th century exists in Cologne, the so-called Saufang (→ cf. Jörg Poettgen, 700 years of bell casting in Cologne (2005), p. 233)
- ↑ ME, RI, SV, AS, NE, NS; NIT IVE, NNI
- ↑ for example with a cross
- ↑ the dots indicate illegible letters
- ↑ this area was corrected in the mold, which meant that these letters could not be cast
- ↑ the uncorrected error is in this word. Instead of the set SD in SDANE, M must be set so that it is called MANE.
- ↑ the letters in brackets have been added to the original text that can be seen on the bell
- ↑ The second year of Abbot Meginher's abortion is 1038
- ↑ the day of Johannes Baptist is June 24th
- ↑ Jörg Poettgen: The contribution of the inscriptions and their design for determining the age of Theophilus bells . In: Jahrbuch für Glockenkunde, Volume 21/22, 2009/2010.
- ↑ Burkhardt: The inscription of the Hersfeld Lullus bell and older bells. In: Monday sheet. Scientific supplement to the Magdeburgische Zeitung . Born in 1913, No. 45, 46 and 47.