He is described as having been dark-haired and swarthy, of good stature, of a benignant and religious disposition, and especially learned in the law.
Some points in his history, it will be seen, are alluded to in his epitaph, which runs as follows:—
"Missus ab urbc fuit, legatus presul ad istas
Rudulphus terras, Renus eum genuit.
Ex Levantina clero auctus atque popell . . .
. . . . s mitis accipit hic cathedram.
Actus ab adversis quam fauste rexerat et post
Mortuus in Domino clauditur hoc tumulo.
1482."
It will be seen that the brass has received an injury at the bottom, by which a word has been lost, only the letter s remaining. If this gap be filled by the word "suffragiis," and meritis be read for mitis, the sense would be tolerably made out.
The year of the death, it will be observed, is in Arabic numerals, and the whole of the date is in a very unfinished state, the plate, no doubt, having been laid down in the life of the bishop, and a space left for the insertion of the date of his decease. This brass is executed upon a system quite different from that in use either in England or in Flanders, the whole, with the exception only of the ornaments on the mitre, and those in the spandrels of the foliations, being in very low relief. The letters of the inscription are not merely raised above the ground, but all, except the capitals, are so formed as to imitate ribbons, or similar articles, bent across at their ends.
The face of the effigy of the bishop is in higher relief; the nose has been a good deal worn down, but it seems to have been originally raised about 112 in.
The saints, figures of which occupy niches at the sides, are, St. John the Baptist, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Hedwiga, wife of Henry the Bearded, Duke of Silesia, and Great Poland. She died in 1243, and was canonized in 1266. The church which the figure holds probably refers to the monastery of Trzebnitz, not far from Breslau, which she founded. St. Hedwiga and St. John are considered the Patron Saints of Silesia.
The arms are, Silesia on the right hand of the effigy, and those of the see or the chapter of Breslau on the left. Those in the centre are said by Dlugossi and others to be his paternal coat.
Another fine brass, brought before the notice of the Institute by Mr. Nesbitt, commemorates Frederic the Sixth, son of Casimir IV., King of Poland, who was Bishop of Cracow, Archbishop of Gnesen, and a cardinal. He was born in 1468, made Bishop of Cracow in 1488, Archbishop of Gnesen and cardinal by the title of St. Lucia in Septifolio, in 1493, and died in the reign of his brother, Alexander, in 1503, aged thirty-five years.
This monument was erected to his memory in 1510, by his brother Sigismund, who became King of Poland in 1506, as appears from an inscription upon it. It is placed in the middle of the choir of the Cathedral of Cracow. The eastern part of the choir is raised a few feet above the western, and on this raised part the coronation of the Kings of Poland used to take place. The brass in question lies on this raised platform, which in reached by steps on each side. On the upright end of the tomb, which is between the steps, is a work in relief in brass, or other mixed
