Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Johann Rode
  • Creator:
  • Description: Johann Rode was the provost of the Cathedral canons in Bremen from 1460 until his death in 1477. The canons were priests assigned to the cathedral and were responsible for mass and other liturgical ceremonies. Rode is dressed in Church vestments includingthe chasuble, an outer robe decorated by ornamental bands. His hair is tonsured, marking a cleric’s dedication to the Church. A chalice for the Eucharist rests upon his chest and likely represents his burial with one. Scholars identify the brass as one of three surviving tombs (the others in Finland and Poland) coming out of a Flemish workshop. Production flourished in Flanders because of access to raw materials and a network of waterways to transport the finished works. Rode held a series of increasingly responsible positions within the Church hierarchy, starting as a canon at the collegiate Church of Saint Ansgar in Bremen in 1426. He moved to Rome to serve as a chief notary and later an editor of papal bulls at the Curia. In 1457 he returned to Germany as the cathedral provost in Hamburg. In 1460 Pope Pius II charged Rode with negotiating a long-running dispute between the town council of Lüneburg and local clergy over economic issues including the local saltworks. It would take the King of Denmark and Sweden to bring the conflict to a close two years later. Rode, in assuming the leadership of the canons at Bremen in 1460, reunited with two of his brothers among the canons, and a third who served twelve years as a city councilor, as well as his nephew Johann who was later prince-archbishop of Bremen (1497–1511). Rode came from a prominent bourgeois family whose members sought advancement in both the secular and sacred world. The landed nobility tended to disparage such families, but they often found success. The family coat of arms, depicted at Rode’s feet, acknowledges the importance of kin; however, greater emphasis is placed on his identity as a priest bringing the gift of salvation to the people.
  • Source: Haverford College donated by David and Maxine Cook
  • Rights: Permission of Haverford College
  • Subject (See Also): Brass Rubbing Tomb Effigies
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 15
  • Date: 1477
  • Related Work:
  • Current Location: Haverford College
  • Original Location: Bremen, Bremen, Germany Cathedral of Saint Peter
  • Artistic Type (Category): Brass rubbing
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Heelball; Paper
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 58.42 cm/185.42 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Norris, M. W. “The Schools of Brasses in Germany.” Journal of the British Archaeological Association 3rd series 19 (1956): 34-52.