Citation: Jara-Vera, Vicente, and Carmen Sánchez-Ávila. 2023. Deciphering the Inscriptions on “The Adoration of the Magi” by Bartholomäus Zeitblom on the High Altar of Blaubeuren. Religions 14: 868. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel14070868 Academic Editor: José María Salvador-González Received: 21 April 2023 Revised: 14 June 2023 Accepted: 27 June 2023 Published: 3 July 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). religions Article Deciphering the Inscriptions on “The Adoration of the Magi” by Bartholomäus Zeitblom on the High Altar of Blaubeuren Vicente Jara-Vera * and Carmen Sánchez-Ávila Departamento de Matemática Aplicada a las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Avenida Complutense No. 30, 28040 Madrid, Spain; carmen.sanchez.avila@upm.es * Correspondence: vicente.jara@upm.es; Tel.: +34-686-615-535 Abstract: The Blaubeuren monastery (Germany) is home to one of the most beautiful religious artistic expressions of Swabian art from the end of the 15th century, a collaborative work of various artists and workshops, including Jörg Syrlin the Younger, Michel Erhart, Hans Schüchlin, Bartholomäus Zeitblom, and Bernhard Strigel. It is a high altar triptych with a double opening. On its right inner bas-relief is “The Adoration of the Magi”, a work by Bartholomäus Zeitblom (ca. 1455–1520), a prominent member of the Ulm School. In the scene, on King Balthazar’s leg, there is a short literary text and a number, “DIER ZVO LIEB 100”, as well as a crowned monogram among floral elements. In this decipherment study, we propose meanings for all of these inscriptions, based on a collection of various previous solutions. The conclusions lead us to a pious expression toward the Child God based on an old Tyrolean Christmas carol compiled in the 19th century, which we trace back to at least the 15th century, an author’s signature by Zeitblom, and an acknowledgment of the royalty of the Virgin Mother Mary. Keywords: Bartholomäus Zeitblom; Blaubeuren; cryptography; deciphering; religious art; Ulm School 1. Introduction The so-called Ulm School began around the end of the 14th century and the early 15th century with artists such as Hans Multscher (ca. 1390–1467), who is considered one of the main initiators of the late Gothic style, and extended until the second half of the 16th century with artists such as Martin Schaffner (ca. 1478–1546). The Ulm School has been described as “modern art, oriented towards the Italian Renaissance [...] which led out of the traditional and provincial painting style of the people of Ulm” (Maier-Lörcher 2004, p. 33; Wortmann 1993). The high altar of the former Benedictine monastery at Blaubeuren, near Ulm, which dates back to the 11th century (Eberl 2002), is the only great Swabian altar that has survived almost intact to the present. It is one of the most important convertible double-leaf and double-themed mobile altars in medieval Germany (Kahsnitz 2005, p. 180). It was made between 1491 and 1493–1494 on behalf of Abbot Heinrich III Fabri and then Count (later Duke) Eberhard von Württemberg. It is a collaborative work carried out by the best carving and painting artists from the former imperial city of Ulm, close to the monastery, a first-rate center of 15th-century German culture; the artists were Jörg Syrlin the Younger, Michel Erhart, Hans Schüchlin, Bartholomäus Zeitblom, and Bernhard Strigel. Among these artists, we will focus especially on Bartholomäus Zeitblom, creator of the bas-relief “The Adoration of the Magi” (Figure 1). In this work, a series of inscriptions with an unclear meaning appear on one of the characters: a short text, “DIER ZVO LIEB”, the number 100, and a monogram (Figure 2). It is our goal to decipher its meaning. Religions 2023, 14, 868. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070868 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions