Schwerin No. 1

Bronze font illustrated in a 1954 photograph by Walter Möbius [https://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/72034305] [accessed 23 February 2025]. Listed and illustrated in Schulin (2021). Noted in 'Gotische Bronzefünten in Nordostdeutschland' [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotische_Bronzefünten_in_Nordostdeutschland] [accessed 30 March 2010], with date in the last quarter of the 14th century. Described in Omilanowska (2001) as a baptismal font of the 14th century. The font is described in some detail with measurements and the text of the inscription in Friedrich Schlie's Die Amtsgerichtsbezirke Wismar, Grevesmühlen, Rehna, Gadebusch und Schwerin (1899): a font made of bronze consisting of an octagonal basin decorated with an arcade of sixteen pinted arches, each side with a pair of arches without the middle supporting column between them; each arch houses a standing figure; these include the Madona and Child and St. John the Evangelist, patron saints of the cathedral, a Baptism of Christ in the Jordan by John the Baptist, and other figures; above the arcade the space is divided into sixteen compartments separated by thin buttresses; the rectangles thus formed contain a part of an inscription (Ezekiel 47:1) that continues all around the basin sides, as well as little figures in the frame; the lower sides of the basin are also divided into small sections, each filled with a geometric motif or pattern; the basin is supported on the arms and shoulders of eight knight in an atlante positiob, their feet resting on an octagonal frame all around. The font cover is slightly raised, not quite flat, and bears arches containing symbols of the Zodiac, foliage, etc. The entry for this font in Lexikus [http://www.lexikus.de/bibliothek/Der-Dom-zu-Schwerin/Das-bronzene-Tauffass/Abschnitt-1] [accessed 23 February 2025] describes some of the other unidentified figures [cf. supra] as probably being from the Old Testament, "Vorbilder („Typen“)": "Männliche Figur mit einer Krone auf dem Haupte", another suche next to it; "Weibliche Figur mit Kopftuch" and another such next to it; "Männliche Figur mit einer Kappe (?) auf dem Haupte", and two more similar next to it; "Weibliche Figur", "Männliche Figur", "Weibliche Figur" and the final one also, "Männliche Figur" -- the Lexikus entry [cf. supra] gives also a lengthy commentary on the Latin inscription, its origin in Ezekiel 47:1 and versions of its translation into German. Further, the Lexikus entry [cf. supra] notes that the little figures that share the rectangular spaces with the text of the inscription are easily identified ["Diese Figürchen lassen sich schon eher erklären, da sie Attribute haben, welche freilich oft schwer zu erkennen sind."]; some are clearly identified by their symbols/attributes as the Twelve Apostles, but some are repeated, the source notes, in the case of John and James actually three times!