Margarete von Castell

Margarete von Castell (died between March 21, 1491 and February 23, 1492) was the long-time provess of the Essen monastery . An arm reliquary of St. Quintin was donated from her estate and as a memoria , which is still in the Essen Cathedral Treasury .

Biographical

Margarete von Castell came from the Franconian noble family von Castell . It is not known when she entered the Essen monastery. When it was first mentioned in a document in 1424, it had already reached the office of the scholaster . Five years later she was already the dean and thus the third most important woman in the monastery after the abbess and the provost. Margarete von Castell had ambitions to become abbess as well. In 1445 Johann von Kleve , son and designated successor of the monastery bailiff, campaigned for her election as abbess at the chapter of canons, but Sophia von Daun-Oberstein was elected . After her death two years later, Margarete von Castell tried again for her election. It is not known why she resigned in favor of the provostess Elisabeth von Sassenberg , who then also became abbess. Presumably, to compensate for the waiver, she received the vacant office of provostess and thus the second most important monastery office. She was first mentioned in a document in this capacity on April 23, 1448. Margarete von Castell held the office of provostess for almost 44 years until her death. The date of death is not known, but can be narrowed down by her last notarization and the first known certificate of her successor Elisabeth von Bronckhorst.

The arm reliquary of Margarete von Castell

The arm reliquary in the exhibition Gold vor Schwarz

Detail of the donor's inscription on the arm reliquary of Margarete von Castell (Essen Cathedral Treasury Inv. No. 35) with the engraver’s spelling mistake: The word ilusteis is engraved , illustris would be correct .

The so-called arm reliquary of Margarete von Castell is identified as a reliquary of St. Quintinus by the donor's inscription and the nails driven under the fingernails . A chapel next to the collegiate church was dedicated to St. Quintin , who played an important role in the collegiate liturgy, especially when new canonesses entered and after their death, and was the main place in the convent's remembrance of the dead.

The arm reliquary is made of silver and partially gold-plated. Its height is 55 cm, the diameter about 16.5 cm. The base in the form of a hollow , in which the donor's inscription is attached, is supported by three cast angel figures. The groove is partially covered by a gold-plated, cast tendril. The arm, made of sheet silver, rises above this base and is modeled on a brocade robe laid in numerous folds , the brocade pattern being engraved and gilded. A window with Gothic tracery is set in the sleeve , which may have been reused. Above this window there is a helmet ornament , a stinging helmet with a double feather crown, which used to crown the coat of arms of the von Castell family. The coat of arms itself is still present on the illustrations made in 1904 in Georg Humann's panels , but is missing today. The sleeve ends with a horizontal, gold-plated plate that closes the sleeve opening. On the wrist of the hand stretched out from the sleeve there is a chased, gold-plated bracelet with set precious stones.

The donor's inscription on the base of the reliquary is made in Gothic minuscule . The approximately one centimeter high inscription is difficult to read. The engraver was not very careful, used different forms of writing of a letter side by side and engraved incorrectly in some places. In addition, he made typographical errors, including in the name of Castell, which he wrote Custell. Because of this, Georg Humann had only deciphered the words brachium Sancti Quintini and Margarete von Castell , which was sufficient to attribute the reliquary. In 2006 Sonja Hermann managed to decipher the complete inscription: beachiu Sancti quintini ornatu per executores Illusteis margarete de custell pptisse ass . After correcting the engraver’s mistakes and resolving the abbreviations, the result is brachium Sancti quintini ornatum per executores Illustris margarete de castell prepositisse assiendis in German arm of Holy Quintin, adorned by the executors of the will of the noble Margarete von Castell, provostess of Essen . The reliquary was therefore not commissioned by Margarete von Castell herself, as assumed in older research, but by her executors.

literature

• Georg Humann : The works of art of the cathedral church to eat. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1904, pp. 353-355.
• Sonja Hermann: The inscription on the arm reliquary of Saint Quintin. The Essen provost Margarete von Castell and her donation in: Birgitta Falk , Thomas Schilp, Michael Schlagheck (eds.): ... how gold shines in the eyes. Treasures from the Essen women's monastery. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-786-4 , pp. 243-255.