Rīgas Sv. Jēkaba baznīcā 1774. gadā atrastais stāvus iemūrētais cilvēks: versijas un papildinājumi Johana Kristofa Broces komentāriem
The Immured Upright Man Found in St. James' Church in 1774: Versions and Additions to Brotze's Commentaries

Summary/Abstract: In mid-1774 reconstruction works were carried out in the interior of Riga’s St. James’ Church. Because of public health concerns, part of the Church interior related to memorial culture was deliberately destroyed – memorial plaques, epitaphs to Riga citizens buried there since the late 13th century as well as family tombs. The decree of the Russian Imperial Senate (1771) and the orders of Vidzeme Governor General J. Brown (1773), forbade the burying of the dead inside churches. Without exception, all nobility with family tombs in Riga churches had to wall them up immediately. Ancient memorial signs were doomed to perish. However, Johann Christoph Brotze (1742–1823), teacher at the Imperial Lyceum close to the church, had started to copy the ancient tombstones, epitaphs and inscriptions found in churches. Brotze must be acknowledged as the pioneer of monument research of ancient Livonia’s memorial culture. In September 1774 the above ground part of the von Meck family tomb was pulled down along with a small pillar located in the tomb corner by the church window. A man’s upright body in a silk garment without a coffin was found immured in it. His clothes had been quite well preserved. A description of the discovery was included in Brotze’s manuscript Sammlung vershiedner livländischen Monumente. The text is supplemented by a plan of St. James Church marking the place of discovery as well as fragments of the cloth worn by the man. The man immured in an upright position in St. James Church is first mentioned in Geschichte von Livland by Gustav Bergmann (1749–1814) published in 1776. Based on the information provided by Brotze, the immured man was also described by local history researcher August Wilhelm Hupel (1737–1819), publisher of “Nordische Miscellaneen”, and Johann Andreas Oesen (1762–1804).The most important and intriguing materials on the immured man are to be found in the Estonian Museum of Literature in the dispatches sent by Brotze to local history researcher Eduard Philip Koerber (1770–1850). Most important are four unique copies of Brotze’s watercolours drawn ad vivum by Koerber, depicting the walled-in man and his garments. Two watercolours have sequentially captured the process of discovery during reconstruction works. Two other images show the man’s clothing. The true value of Brotze’s documentary exact drawings is revealed when the images are found to be at odds with his commentaries. Brotze had made a mistake (as did Hupel after him) in dating the immured man’s garments from the 1580s. The pictures show a man’s garment typical of the upper class, whose cut and finish point towards the 2nd third or middle of the 17th century – the so-called Swedish times.This seemingly minor mistake in the dating of the clothing led to a chain of much more important errors. Although it is impossible to identify the unknown man, there are some hypotheses explored in the article.

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