BRAUN, JOSEPH. - German art historian and archaeologist, born in Wipperfürth, Rhineland, on 31 January 1857, died in Pullach on 11 July 1947. Jesuit from 4 October 1890, he taught art history at the theological faculties of the Order in Valkenburg (Netherlands) and Frankfurt am Main; he was awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Münster and Munich for his foundational archaeological and liturgical works. Through his publications on the churches of the Society of Jesus, he refuted the theory of the so-called “Jesuit style.”
His most important works include: *Die Liturgische Gewandung im Okzident und Orient* (1907); *Die Belgischen Jesuitenkirchen* (1907); *Die Kirchenbauten der deutschen Jesuiten* (3 vols., 1908; II, 1910); *Handbuch der Paramentik* (1912), translated into Italian; *Spanische alte Jesuitenkirchen* (1913); *Liturgik* (1920); *Meisterwerke der deutschen Goldschmiedekunst der vorgotischen Zeit* (1922); *Der christliche Altar* (2 vols., 1924); *Das Altargerät in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung* (1931); *Die Reliquiare des christlichen Kults und ihre Entwicklung* (1940); *Tracht und Attribute der Heiligen in der Deutschen Kunst* (1943).