Ludwig Hammer from St. Goar – Kloster Eberbach

Canon and customs clerk († 1484)

Ludwig Hammer was in the service of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen and can be found in various sources as a customs clerk at St. Goar. From 1478 to 1480, he also appears as a canon of the canon monastery of St. Goar, which (like Eberbach) had very close ties to the House of Counts in the Middle Ages. Ludwig's epitaph in Eberbach even states that he was the dean of St. Goar, the second most important office in a monastery after the provost. He is also referred to as dean in the so-called Seelbuch, a calendar of donors who died on certain days. It also mentions that he had done good for the abbey (“qui benefecit nobis”), which probably explains his burial in Eberbach.

His red sandstone tombstone depicts him as the canon of St. Goar and not as a monk from Eberbach: His full regalia consists of the elongated biretta as a headdress as well as the upper vestment, the chasuble, under which both ends of the stole peek out, resting on the dalmatic, the lower vestment. The chalice held in front of the chest and blessed with the right hand is typical of the depiction of canons. On his left arm, Ludwig wears the Manipel, a cloth band that looks like a scarf and marks his higher orders.

Despite the shallow depth of the relief, the monument is of remarkable quality in terms of its fine details and naturalistic materiality. For example, the ornamentally adorned chasuble fits exactly into the folds of the robe on which it is placed. It is similarly realistic when the outer garment folds up into folds at the bottom due to its weight. The late Gothic tracery, in which a cross-shaped stonemason's mark can be found, is of the same quality as the funerary inscription.

Source: German Inscriptions Online (43, no. 265), Academy of Sciences Mainz

Image of the tomb: Michael Leukel

The epitaph in Gothic minuscule reads:

Anno • d(omi)ni • m / cccc • lxxxiiii • die • francisci • O(biit) • d(omi)n(u)s • lvdowic(us) • ham(m)er • decan(us) • ecc(les)ie • sancti / goar[i]s • cui(us) • a(n)i(m)a • requiescat • in pace • amen
In the year of our Lord 1484, on the day of Saint Francis (October 4) died Sir Ludwig Hammer, dean of the church of St. Goar, whose soul rest in peace. Amen.

Tombstones

These are fascinating life stories that can be found carved in stone in Eberbach - and which are now being told with the help of a QR code project.

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