Lübeck's Dance of Death

Jacob von Melle (1659-1743)

Jacob von Melle, the preacher who transcribed the text from the old painting in 1701, was more than qualified for the job.

Jacob von Melle's epitaph.

He was born 17^th June 1659 in Lübeck and studied theology, philosophy, philology, history and natural science at the university in Kiel. In 1684 he was appointed preacher in St. Mary's Church in Lübeck and in 1706 he was appointed vicar - a position he retained until his death 13^th June 1743.

von Melle knew 10 languages and published countless books - among these a Low German dictionary with 20.000 entries and a book about the so-called "guldgubber" on the Danish island, Bornholm ("guldgubber" (gold old men) are tiny pre-historic gold-plates with a stamped human image).

von Melle is considered the father of Lübeckian historiography and in two of his books he has described the dance of death - namely his hand-written "Ausfürliche Beschreibung der kayserlichen, freyen, und der H. Römischen Reichs Stadt Lübeck" and "Lubeca religiosa". Unfortunately the latter disappeared during the 2^nd World War.

How reliable a witness was Jacob von Melle?

"guldgubber" from the Danish island Bornholm.

Jacob von Melle is our only source for the original Low German text and fortunately it would seem that he did a good job. von Melle was able to read 4 lines at the beginning of the painting and they resemble the fragment in Tallinn. The few differences that exist are probable caused by the different dialects(1) in Lübeck and Tallinn, rather than misreading.

On the other hand it seems that von Melle has interchanged some of the verses. This is most unfortunately - especially since the structures of the two dances of death are quite different:

Schlott's new text is constructed very simple: Death speaks his 4 lines to the human and the human answers.
In the old text it's the humans who start with 8 lines - after which Death answers with 7 lines. In the 8^th and last line Death calls the next dancer. This means that Death's verse is locked together with both the preceding and the following verse (like the dancers in the chain dance).

With Schlott's text you could swap the couples around without any problem (as long as you observe the overall sequence). If you try the same stunt on the old text from 1463, Death and the humans will be talking at cross-purposes, and this is exactly what happened, as described in the notes here and here.

Jacob von Melle, Death to the doctor.

It's hard to believe that such a learned man as von Melle could miss such a fundamental fact, but take a look at the verse to the right: The heading is "Der Tod zum Arzte", which is High German (in Low German it would be "De doet to dem arsten"). It seems incongruous to have High German headings in a Low German text and when we add to this that there are no headings on the painting in Tallinn, we must conclude that the headings were added by von Melle.(2)

But the heading is wrong since the first 7 lines are Death's answer to the preceding dancer. Only the 8^th line, "Follow after, Master Medicine", addresses the physician.

Everything indicates that when von Melle published his "Ausfürliche Beschreibung" in 1713, he was so influenced by the new painting - which by then had been hanging in the church for 12 years - that not only did he copy the new (High German) headings, but he also arranged his notes according to these new headings - no matter whether the text would make sense or not.

Sources

Jacob von Melle og de bornholmske guldgubber, published by Colbergs Boghandel, 1997
Der Todtentanz in der Marienkirche zu Lübeck
Der Totentanz der Marienkirche in Lübeck
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 1885 (vol. 21, 297-298)
Biographisches Lexikon für Schleswig-Holstein und Lübeck, 1991 (vol. 7, 183-184)
Neue Deutsche Biographie (vol. 7, 19-20)
Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie (vol. 8, 680)

Further information:

(1) A thorough analysis of the language(s) in the two paintings by Robert Damme can be found in the book Der Totentanz der Marienkirche in Lübeck.

(2) Just as the headings in this site, "Death answers the mayor and turns to the physician" are added by me to facilitate the reading.