Friday, January 27, 2012

Parish church of Luckau in East Germany


Luckau is a little town in East Germany. The name sounds Slavonic, which is not surprising, as it lies on the verge of the area still today inhabited by Slav-speaging Sorben people. There are, however, no inscriptions in Slav language, even though one of vicars, whose epitaphium I reproduce here, came apparently from Bohemia (which is now Czech Republic). The area was strictly Protestant after the Reformation, which is probably the reason why there is very little figurative art in the church. Calligraphy, on the other hand, was fluorishing, the church is full of it. There are fantastic tombs in Baroque style with no images, just inscriptions. Various styles of calligraphy were used, often one inscription is part in Latin in italic script and part in German in Baroque fractur script. Here I reproduce some of those inscriptions. 













 

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