The life of Albrecht Dürer of Nürnberg : with a translation of his letters and journal, and an account of his works

Preface To First Edition

It appears at first sight somewhat strange that a separate life of the greatest of German artists should never before have been published in England ; for the works — at any rate the engraved works — of Albrecht Diirer have for many years been held in high estimation in this country by a certain class of thoughtful students of art and literature. But the rapid development of art education and the growth of true feeling in art which the last few years have witnessed, were both necessary before such a work could, with any chance of success, be addressed to general readers. For Albrecht Diirer is by no means an artist who appeals to all the world. The beauty and holiness of Raphael, the grace of Correggio, the glorious colour of Titian and Rubens — even the power and majesty of Michael Angelo — can be appreciated to some extent by all but the most ignorant or insensible ; but the secret of Diirer’s strength lies further from the surface and requires more of intellectual and imaginative effort in its study than that of any of the Italian masters. His work is always transcendently good, but that it is also most beautiful will only be perceived by those whose eyes have been trained to seek out that high and subtle beauty which lies outside the region of the sensuous.

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PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

But this book does not pretend to deal with the hidden mysteries of Diirer’s art. I have not been favoured, as some critics claim to have been, with any especial revelations, and therefore refrain from putting forward any hypotheses of my own on this subject. I cannot even profess to have given a critical history of his works, or to have formed any new catalogue of them for the benefit of connoisseurs, my principal aim having been to tell the story of Diirer’ s life, using, whenever I could, his own words for that purpose. The translation of the letters, journal, and other papers relating to his personal history, has therefore formed the chief part of my task. These writings of his, which by rare good fortune have been handed down to us, reflect so vividly the simple loving heart with which his genius was associated, that I thought- my readers would far rather have them in their crude, rough, and sometimes ungrammatical form, than any smooth biographical structure that I could build up out of them. I have taken the greatest pains to make my translations as faithful as possible, and they have at least this merit, that they are strictly from the original German ; but the difficulty of rendering provincial German of the fifteenth century into English of the nineteenth, is so great that I have been obliged in some places to own myself conquered by it. In such places I have given the original words in a foot-note, or in the text, instead of following the example of a French translator of Diirer’s letters, who sometimes supplies their places with neat phrases of his own ; phrases which Diirer might perhaps or ought to have used, but which assuredly he did not.

The arrangement of the parts which I have adopted in this book is somewhat unusual, and needs perhaps a few words of explanation. Part I. is in ordinary chronological order, but Part II., instead of following up the history of the life, is

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

Vll entirely devoted to a consideration of the works of Diirer. My reasons for this were, firstly, that there is a considerable hiatus which cannot now be filled up in our records of this portion of Diirer’s life ; and as we are certain from the dates of his engravings and pictures that this time was almost entirely occupied with hard work in his studio, there seemed a certain fitness in describing in this place those works of art which form the real history of his life at this period ; and, secondly, that it is almost impossible to understand the journal and some other of the later portions of the narrative, without some knowledge of the art labours which had occupied the previous years of the artist. I feel sure that the irregularity of arrangement will not cause any inconvenience to the reader. The history of the works contained in Part II. is longer than I at first intended it to be, and on looking over its pages I find that there are not many important works which can with reasonable probability be ascribed to Diirer, that have not received some notice.

I have indicated with great care most of the sources from which I have derived my information, but there are two or three which claim more than the mere casual recognition of a foot-note. The voluminous catalogue contained in the second volume of Joseph Heller’s f Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Durer’s’ (the first volume, which was to have contained the life, was never published) has been a guide to me, as it must be to everyone who writes about Diirer. Equally valuable and learned, and far more lucid in style and arrangement, is Dr. von Eye’s ‘ Leben und Wirken Albrecht Diirer’s.’ To acknowledge my deep obligations to these two books is simply tantamount to saying that I have read them, for each has added so much to the history of the subject as to be essential to everyone who touches it.

viii PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

My warm thanks are likewise due to the authorities of the British Museum ; especially to Mr. Winter Jones, Dr. W. Wright, and Mr. G. W. Reid, who have always given me the most cordial sympathy and assistance in my work. To the numerous other friends, both in England and abroad, from whom I have received much valuable help, I can only offer in this place a general but not the less grateful acknowledgment.

M. M. H.

Lessness Heath, Kent, 1869.

Preface To Second Edition

Several important contributions to Diirer literature have appeared in Germany during the eleven years which have passed since the almost simultaneous appearance in England of Mr. W. B. Scott’s interesting and scholarly biography and the first edition of this book.

In 1870, Dr. Lochner, of Niirnberg, published a valuable monograph on the personal names mentioned in Diirer’s letters from Venice. These names, mostly those of old patrician families in Niirnberg, had in many cases misled previous translators.

In 1871, came a suggestive study by Dr. Max Allihn, of Diirer’s enigmatical engravings, a study also pursued by Herr Adolf Rosenberg, in some articles which appeared in the Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst At about the same time Dr. Alfred von Sallet published a pamphlet on the drawings attributed to Diirer in the Berlin, Bamberg, and Weimar collections, and Herr von Rettberg, a work of some importance on the copper and wood engravings. In England also, Professor Colvin has contributed much to the history of the subject by his interesting series of articles published in the Portfolio in 1877.

But by far the most important additions to our know-

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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

ledge have been made by Professor Moritz Thausing, who has subjected Diirer’s life, writings, and artistic work to a critical analysis that had not previously been attempted.

In 1872 appeared his translation into modern German of Diirer’s letters, journal, family chronicle, and verses, with notes explanatory of many of their obscure allusions. This useful labour was followed, in 1876, by an exhaustive biography, in which no doubtful point was suffered to escape examination, and much new light was thrown upon the history of Dtirer’s works.

It will be seen in the following pages that I often differ from Professor Thausing’s conclusions, his theories seeming to me to be sometimes as baseless as those he overthrows ; but this does not prevent me from acknowledging the great value of his work, and the scientific manner in which it has been performed.

Aided by such valuable material, and by continued study of my own in the fascinating realm of Durer’s creations, I have been able to make important corrections and additions in the present edition, so that I trust it will be found useful to students, as well as interesting to general readers.

MARY M. HEATON.

Lessness Heath, Kent, December , 1880.

Introduction

Nurnberg in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.

Modern Niirnberg — Its Mediaeval appearance — Its former glory — Artistic mind of Niirnberg in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — Its mechanical activity — The first paper-mill of Germany — Koburger’s printing-press — Regiomontanus — Workmen of Niirnberg — Peter Hele — Hanns Bullman — Wenzel Jamintzer — The Rath, or Town Council — Strikes — Form of government — High rank and importance of the merchants — Their wealth and magnificence — Rapid development of the Fine Arts — Sebald Schonhofer — The Ruprechts — Adam Kraft — Peter Vischer — Veit Stoss — Character of their works — Hans Sachs — Conrad Celtes — Martin Behaim Pages i — 26

PART L

FROM INFANCY TO MANHOOD.

Chapter I. — Parentage, Birth, and Early Years

Albrecht Diirer the elder arrives in Niirnberg — Of Hungarian descent — Enters into the service of the goldsmith, Hieronymus Holper — Marries Barbara Holperin — Family register of the births of children — Birth of Albrecht Diirer — Character of Diirer’s father — Birth of Willibald Perkheimer — The schoolmaster in Niirnberg — Diirer’s first portrait of himself — Early drawings — Influence of the town-life on his character Pages 29 — 39

Chapter II. — Years of Apprenticeship and Travel

Works as a goldsmith under his father — Neudorfer’s inaccurate statements— Was never a pupil of Schongauer’s — Apprenticed to Michael Wohlgemuth — Michael Wohlgemuth — Engravings signed ‘W.’ —

Xll

CONTENTS.

Martin Schongauer — Influence of Schongauer on Diirer — Early woodcut — Early drawings — Portrait of Michael Wohlgemuth — Wander-Jahre — Portrait of 1493 described by Goethe .... Pages 40 — 54

Chapter IIP— Marriage and Settlement in Nurnberg.

Returns to Nurnberg — The testimony of Camerarius and Melanchthon to Diirer’s nobility of character — Hans Frey — Agnes Frey — Marriage — German courtship in the Middle Ages — Willibald ImhoFs diary of his courtship — Agnes Frey’s temper — Domestic unhappiness — House in Nurnberg — Masterpiece or diploma picture — Received into the guild of painters — Plague-picture — Portrait in the Uffizi and Madrid galleries — Portrait in the Munich gallery — Death of Albrecht Diirer the elder Pages 55 — 69

Chapter IV.— Journey to Venice. Letters to Pirkheimer

Motives for the journey — Illness on the way — Curious preservation of the letters — Letter I. — First mention of the painting for the Tedeschi — Letter II. — Description of artist society in Venice — Giovanni Bellini visits Diirer — Anecdote related by Camerarius — ‘ Master Jacob’ — Letter III. — Works at the picture for the Tedeschi — Bargaining — Letter IV. — Pirkheimer’s commissions — Letter V. — Summoned by the painters of Venice — His brother Hans Diirer— Letter VI. — Begins in bad Italian — Laughs at Pirkheimer — Letter VII. — Mock respect to Pirkheimer— Letter VIII. — Manuscript only recently discovered at the British Museum — Announces the completion of the painting for the Tedeschi — Letter IX. — Learns dancing — Speaks of his return — He is ‘ a gentleman ’ at Venice — Journey to Bologna — Death of Mantegna — Letter discovered recently by Mr. W. Mitchell . Pages 70 — 100

No record of his personal history during these years of quiet work — Agnes Frey’s method of viewing her husband’s work — Death of Diirer’s mother — Interchange of presents with Raphael — Portrait sent to Raphael — Raphael’s Drawing sent to Diirer — Journey to Augsburg — Portrait of the Emperor Maximilian — History of Durer’s two sketch-books — Friends in Nurnberg Pages 10 1 — 109

Chapter I.— Engravings on Wood

Argument as to whether Diirer cut his own blocks — The wood-engravers ( Formschneider ) of Nurnberg — Woodcuts of the Apocalypse — Description of the cuts of the Apocalypse — Editions of the Apocalypse — The

CONTENTS.

Xlll

Life of the Virgin— Description of cuts— The Great Passion— The Little Passion Editions of the Little Passion — Single subjects — Copies of the woodcuts Marc Antonio’s piracies — Other artists who imitated -Durer Pages 1 13 — 155

Chapter II.— Works for the Emperor Maximilian. Intellect of Maximilian — His encouragement of literature and art

Anecdotes of Maximilian and Diirer— Diirer’s coat of arms— The Arch of Maximilian— Diirer’s difficulty in obtaining payment for his work— Various editions of the Arch— Early impressions— The Triumphal Car of Maximilian— Prayer-book of Maximilian— The Great Column- Apotheosis of Maximilian— Portraits of Maximilian . Pages 156—173

Chapter III— Engravings on Copper

Intellectual character of Diirer’s works— Idea of death — Fantastic element — Mystery of Diirer’s art— The Knight, Death, and Devil— The four Naked Women, etc., probably copies from Wohlgemuth— The Adam and Eve— The Prodigal Son— Other single subjects— The Passion in Copper — Etchings — St. Jerome — Melencolia — Virgin subjects— St. Eustachius — The Great Fortune — St. Anthony — Best watermarks on the prints Pages 174—216

Chapter IV.— Paintings, Drawings, and Plastic Works

Portrait of Diirer’s father — Four repetitions of this portrait — The Feast of the Rose Garlands — The Adam and Eve — Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Saints — Correspondence with Jacob Heller — The Coronation of the Virgin — Copy of this picture at Frankfort — The Adoration of the Trinity — The Four Apostles — Change in Diirer’smode of painting in his later years — Letter to the Rath accompanying the Four Apostles — Baumgartner altar-piece — Other paintings at Munich — Portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher — Paintings in England — The Death of the Virgin — Drawings in the Albertina collection at Vienna — History of the Imhof collection— Drawings in the British Museum — Drawings in private collections in England — Drawings in Berlin Museum — Drawings in other collections — Plastic works — Birth of St. John the Baptist — Preaching of St. John the Baptist — Medals . . Pages 217 — 262

Chapter V.— Literary Wopks

Number of works ascribed by Camerarius to Diirer — The Art of Fencing — The Art of Mensuration — Fortification of Cities — Book of Human Proportions — Editions and translations of it — Manuscript of the Book of Human Proportions — Diirer’s verses — Pirkheimer’s and Spengler’s mockery of them . Pages 263 — 273

XIV

CONTENTS.

Chapter I.— Journey to the Netherlands in 1520. Journal

Motives of the journey differently stated by different biographers — Did not go to escape from his wife — Probable that he went in order to gain his Conjirmatia from Charles V. — Objective character of his writing — Departure from Niirnberg — Journal from Niirnberg to Frankfort — From Frankfort to Koln — Arrival at Antwerp — Takes up his abode with Jobst Planckfelt — The Fugger family — Differ and his wife entertained by the Antwerp painters — Makes the acquaintance of Erasmus — Great religious procession described — Goes to Brussels — Riches of the Netherlands— Returns to Antwerp— Entry of Charles V. into Antwerp — Goes to Aachen — Sees the coronation of Charles V. — Goes to Koln — Receives his Confirmatia — Returns to Antwerp — Journey into Zealand — In danger of shipwreck — Returns to Antwerp — Entertained by the goldsmiths of Antwerp — Patenir’s painting of Lot and his Daughters — Goes to Bruges — Entertained by the painters, goldsmiths, and merchants — Goes to Ghent — Received by the painters in splendid style— Falls ill — Is at Joachim Patenir’s wedding — Outburst of religious feeling on hearing the news of Luther having been taken prisoner — Horse fair at Antwerp — Visit to Mecheln — Interview with the Archduchess Margaret — Lucas Van Leyden — Bad bargains in the Netherlands — Borrows money of Imhof— Goes to Brussels — Draws the King of Denmark — Festivities in honour of the King of Denmark — Leaves Brussels and travels to Koln — Abrupt conclusion of Journal Pages 277 — 344

Chapter II. — Last Years in Nurnberg, and Death

Return to Nurnberg — Progress of the Reformation in the town — Influence of Pirkheimer, Spengler, and others — Banishment of three of Differ’s pupils — Letter to Spalatinus — Effect on Differ’s art — Portraits of Kleeberger, of Erasmus, and of Melanchthon — Intercourse of Differ with Erasmus and Melanchthon — Portraits of Pirkheimer, the Elector Albrecht of Mainz, Friedrich of Saxony, and Ulrich Varnbiihler — Last portrait of himself — Latest works — Illness — Letter to the Rath about the investment of his money — Mean conduct of the Rath — Diirer’s death — Inscriptions on his grave — Pirkheimer’s grief — Pirkheimer’s letter accusing Agnes Frey — Subsequent life of Agnes Frey — Speedy extinction of the Differ family — Conclusion . . Pages 345 — 362

General index Page 363

Index to Works „ 369

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PORTRAIT OF ALBRECHT DURER. PART OF THE ENGRAVING BY W. HOLLAR, FROM THE PICTURE BY DURER IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE; REPRODUCED BY E. CHARREYRE Front.

ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD , PHO T OLITHO GRA PHE D BY J. A KERMAN.

PAGE

THE FOUR RIDERS. FROM THE AFOCALYPSE . . .120

THE ELECT WITH PALM-BRANCHES. FROM THE APOCALYPSE . 122

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. FROM THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN . 132

THE REPOSE IN EGYPT. FROM THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN . 1 34

CHRIST MOCKED. THE VIGNETTE OF THE GREAT PASSION . 1 38

THE DESCENT INTO HELL. FROM THE GREAT PASSION . . 140

THE CRUCIFIXION. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN WOOD . 1 44

THE SUBMISSION OF THE FLEMINGS. FROM THE ARCH OF

MAXIMILIAN . . 164

ENGRAVINGS ON COPPER , REPRODUCED BY AM AND DURAND.

ST. GEORGE ON HORSEBACK 19°

THE LITTLE HOUSE . 194

ECCE HOMO. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN COPPER . .196

HEALING THE LAME MAN. FROM THE LITTLE PASSION IN

COPPER 200

VIRGIN, WITH CRESCENT MOON ...... 2oS

VIRGIN CROWNED BY TWO ANGELS 212

ST. ANTHONY WITH THE BELL . . . • . . 214

ST. CHRISTOPHER 354

LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER.

-<X<>QeJoo-

INTRODUCTION.

NURNBERG IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. ♦

‘ Who Germany would know And Germany would love,

To him old Niirnberg show,

So full of noble art.’

Niirnberg Rhyme.

Nurnberg at the present day is set in the midst of modern Germany, like one of its own rich mediaeval carvings in the midst of a modern wall. All around it surges and drives the nineteenth century, with its railroads, telegraphs, huge hotels, and stucco villas. But the nineteenth century stops outside the gates of Nurnberg ; everything within these still lives, breathes and moves in the Middle Ages.* Here

'* This, it must be admitted, is less true now than it was when this book was first written, nearly twelve years ago. Since then, the modem taste for restoration has been developed in Niirnberg as well as elsewhere, and many of the old patrician houses, which formerly gave such an air of dignity to the streets, have been pulled down to make room for obtrusive modern dwellings, or else have been restored until no feature of their ancient face remains. Every year brings with it fresh destruction ; some quaint gable-end, some curious bit of carving or image of saint, disappears from view, and the old-world aspect of the town becomes gradually changed. But such changes as these, which take place in every old town, arc

I

LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER.

are still the narrow streets with their rows of quaint houses — each one differing from the other, and every roof forming a distinct study for an artist — where Albrecht Diirer walked up and down with his friend Willibald Pirkheimer. Here is still the ancient castle with its massive towers, some of them dating back into the times of heathendom, around which the town grew from a mere little settlement of peasants and small traders who sought the protection of the castle towers, to be one of the largest and most important trading towns in the world. Here are still the noble Gothic churches, built when Art and Religion yet walked hand and hand ; churches whose every stone is a thought clothed in all the solemn beauty of the past ; and here in these churches are still the archaic old Byzantine and German pictures, with their long-necked saints and staring green-complexioned Madonnas, which no doubt gave Nurnberg’s greatest artist his first ideas of pictorial art.

No town, indeed, in all Europe preserves up to the present time such a vivid picture of the manner of life and mode of thought of the Middle Ages as this of Niirnberg. Even the very names of the inhabitants remain unchanged ;'and when the stranger inquires for the house of Peter Vischer, or Adam Kraft, he is directed very likely to the abode of some present Peter Vischer, or Adam Kraft who keeps a beerhouse or gingerbread shop in the town. Descendants of the grand old patrician families also, who were once the proud nobles of Niirnberg, still in many cases dwell in the curious old mansions inhabited by their ancestors, whose faded glory perhaps accords with their faded importance — for Niirnberg, alas ! is a place of small importance in the modern world. It is a free slight compared to one which now threatens Niirnberg. This is no other than the destruction of the old fortified wall which encircles the town and lends to it so much of its picturesque appearance. Loud is the outcry that has been raised against this latest ravage, but it is to be feared that in spite of the protestations of lovers of art and antiquity all over the world, this massive old wall, with its many historic associations, is doomed to be destroyed, to make room for a grand modern suburb; some parts of it, indeed, have already been razed. Of course it is always a difficult question to decide how far the memories of the past ought to be allowed to interfere Math the needs of the present; but until recently Nurnberg’s modern life has not been assertive, and it has remained to the joy of archaeologists as a little artistic oasis in the midst of this art-loving, but art-barren, nineteenth century.

ARTISTIC MIND OF NURNBERG. 3

imperial town no longer ; its Rath has departed, its trade has sought other channels, its artists are dead, its stirring life is a thing of the past, and now it is chiefly the antiquarian and the art-loving stranger, who find attraction within its gates. A certain amount of trade, of course, is still carried on ; Niirnberg toys are greatly in request by our little ones, and Niirnberg wood-carving is still of superior excellence ; its gingerbread also has a certain gastronomic fame ; but what is this compared with the active commerce that it carried on with all parts of the civilised world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? It was then, indeed, the greatest manufacturing town in Europe — the Birmingham of the Middle Ages ; but it differed in this respect from our modern Birmingham, that it had a soul in its manufacturing body, and produced not only beautiful fabrics and well-wrought iron and steel, but deep-thinking and inquiring minds, and noble artists and workmen who have left the impress of their thoughts and endeavours on all the work that was done by their hands.

For the workman in Niirnberg in the fifteenth century was not a mere machine that turned out so much wood-carving, or so many sculptured saints a day, at the cheapest possible rate; he was not

‘ A tool

Or implement, — a passive thing employed As a brute mean, without acknowledgment Of common right or interest in the end,’ —

but he wrought with an understanding spirit, and took pride in the perfecting of his work. The artist and the artisan were indeed at that time more often and more intimately united than they are at the present day. The greatest artist did not then think it beneath him to do his own manual and mechanical work, whilst the poorest workman sometimes rose to the rank of an artist by the expression of some true sentiment, or noble individual thought ; thus realising Ruskin’s ideal, of thought made healthy by labour, and labour made happy by thought.

It is this free and intelligent expression of the workman s mind which gives such high value to all noble mediaeval art, and separates it so widely from the soulless, though perhaps more dexterous and skilled, productions of later times ; for, after all,

1 — 2

LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER.

it is the thought of the artist that we seek for in his work, nor can we rest satisfied with mere dexterity of execution, however much we may admire its ingenuity.

Perhaps in no single city was this artistic mind ever more active than in Niirnberg during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Not only, as boasted in the proud burgher proverb, did

£ Nilmberg’s hand Go through every land

but Niirnberg’s thought, expressed in the art of the greatest of her sons, has travelled to lands which did not come within the limits of those old burghers’ geographical knowledge, and has powerfully influenced the artistic culture of the whole German nation.

But even before the time when the great Reforming Spirit of Germany found its highest artistic expression in the works of Albrecht Diirer, there were other noble artists in Niirnberg who were stirred, though in a less powerful degree, by the same mighty influences, and whose works reveal much of that independent national character which from an early period formed one of the most marked features of old German Art.

Before, therefore, considering the position that Albrecht Diirer occupied in the Art-history of his country, or forming any judgment as to the meaning of his life and work, it is necessary to try and understand something of the teaching of the century that produced him ; more especially to trace its influence on the active life and thought of the town in which he was born, and on the minds of those artists who were his immediate predecessors and contemporaries. For, if we would properly study a star in the heavens, we must diligently observe not only its position in the sky, but likewise the constellation in which it happens to be placed.

As early as the very beginning of the fifteenth century a great mechanical activity was manifested in Niirnberg. The first paper-mill of Germany was established here in the year 1 390, by one Ulman Stromer, who also wrote the first work ever published on the art of paper-making. This mill employed a large number of persons, all of whom were obliged to take an

ARTISTIC MIND OF NURNBERG.

oath not to reveal the secret of the process, or ever to make paper on their own account. The Nurnberg workmen, however, proved somewhat refractory, and it appears that on the enlargement of his mill (to which they objected) Ulman Stromer had to bring them before the magistrates of the town, who imprisoned them until they returned to obedience and renewed their oaths. Such was the fifteenth-century method of dealing with strikes.*'

The printing-press also, set up in Nurnberg by Antonius Koburger, ranked second only to the celebrated one in Mentz, and had already in the fifteenth century as many as twenty-

four presses, giving work to more than a hundred workmen

a large number at that time.

Thus at a comparatively early date Nurnberg was already

in possession of two great sources of wealth and civilization

paper of her own making, and books of her own printing.

Nor were there wanting men who knew how to make use of these advantages. The invention of printing naturally brought with it a multiplication of writers, and the Nurnberg press in particular seems to have been well employed, and to have proceeded at an accelerating rate with the ever-increasing demands made upon it. At first, as at Mentz, Bibles, psalters, and primers, or prayer-books, were the principal works that were put forth by this press ; but soon we find edifying homilies, more or less veracious chronicles, bitter religious satires, rhyming histories, and even scientific treatises appearing one after another much in the manner of modern times. Weidler, indeed, mentions no less than twenty-one works by Regiomontanus alone that issued from the Nurnberg printing-press.

The name of this celebrated mediaeval mathematician and astronomer brings us to the consideration of the influence he exerted on the development of that mechanical and artistic spirit for which, as before stated, Nurnberg was so early remarkable.

Johann Muller, better known by his Latin appellation of

* See Von Murr’s ‘Journal zur Kunstgeschichte unci Litteratur, vol. v., 1 7 7 7» where there is an interesting and detailed account of this Uhnan Stromer and his workpeople.

LIFE OF ALBRECHT DURER.

Regiomontanus, derived, according to some, from Konigshoven, the name of the town where he was born, was early distinguished for his scientific learning. At the age of fifteen he became the favourite pupil of the celebrated Georg Peurbach, who was then professor at Vienna, and for several years assisted him in his astronomical investigations. When Peurbach died, Regiomontanus completed several of the works which his master had left unfinished, and then, at the invitation of the king, Mathias Corvin, he went into Hungary, where he was employed in revising Greek manuscripts. But disturbances breaking out in Hungary, he determined to settle in Niirnberg, a town that must have offered many advantages for carrying out his scientific and mechanical inventions. He arrived at Niirnberg in the year 1471, the year in which Albrecht Diirer was born, and his settlement there undoubtedly gave a great forward impulse not only to the mechanical trades, but also to the mental progress of the town. Diirer himself seems to have owed something to the influence exerted by Regiomontanus. He has been called ‘ the mathematician of painters,’ and certainly his knowledge of perspective and his scientific measurement of proportions prove that he must have possessed a considerable acquaintance with mathematics. The astronomical subjects treated in two of his woodcuts could not, one would imagine, have been designed unless he had known something of astronomy.