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ON the termination of his apprenticeship, in 1476, young Martin was sent abroad in order that he might improve his technical and commercial knowledge. He was first placed with Jorius van Dorpp, a cloth-merchant of Mechlin, with whom he remained for over a year. Mechlin was a dull place, but even then famous for its lace and cloth, and boasted of an ancient cloth hall and a cathedral, built out of the offerings of pilgrims who flocked thither to win the indulgences promised to worshippers at the shrine of St. Rombold. Whilst at Mechlin he witnessed, on April 13, 1477, the arrival of the ambassy of Frederick III., King of the Romans, which was to solicit the hand of Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold,(2) for his son Maximilian. The nuptials took place in due course on August 19 at Ghent. The people, so Behaim tells us, had looked forward to this event with " much gladness," for they hoped that Maximilian would at once take the field and drive the French out of Artois, Hainaut and Flanders, which they had invaded in the beginning of the year, and where they had burnt villages, sacked towns, and committed untold-of atrocities. They were doomed to disappointment. A truce was indeed agreed upon at Lens (September 18, 1477), but its terms were little respected by the French. Behaim, writing from Mechlin on October 13, 1477, tells us that whilst the country was being laid waste, " the young gentleman of Austria lay at Brügge with his fair wife." He adds that the public treasure had been expended by the late Duke in continuous wars, that no measures had been taken to meet the French in the field, and that all the world grumbled. As to himself, however, his uncle need fear nothing, as the French were still 16 miles(3) from Mechlin, and would have to capture four big towns before they could appear before its walls.
Visits to the Fairs at Frankfurt were included in the scheme of Behaim's commercial education. The first of these visits was to have been paid at Easter 1477, but as the roads were not safe at that time for travellers, Jorius van Dorpp preferred to sell his cloth direct to a German merchant at Antwerp. Later in the year Martin, by desire of his mother, visited the autumn fair, when he was initiated by his fatherly friend, Bartels von Eyb, into the mysteries of buying and selling.(4)
He was once more at Frankfurt in the following autumn, and in a letter written to his uncle Leonhard, on September 18,1778, he suggested a removal from Mechlin, expressed a desire to be placed with good (fromme) people engaged in commerce, declared his willingness to be bound for three years, and promised to shirk no drudgery as long as it would help him in his business career. This question of a change was no doubt considered by his mother, his uncle and by Bartels von Eyb, the friend and adviser of his mother, for early in the following year, if not before, we find our young merchant transferred to the cloth-dye-house of Fritz Heberlein, a Nuremberger established at Antwerp. That city, in the course of the fifteenth century, had grown into the most important seaport of the Netherlands, partly in consequence of the decay of Brügge, due to the silting-up of the Zwyn, which up till then had permitted sea-going vessels to sail up to that city, but more especially owing to the Scheldt having excavated for itself a more direct course to the sea which enabled vessels of the largest burden to proceed up to the wharves of the town. To judge from a letter which young Martin wrote to his uncle Leonhard on June 8, 1479,(5) he was well pleased with his stay there. He was a favourite with his master and the members of the household, whilst the foreman, in return for being taught arithmetic,(6) initiated him into all the mysteries of the cloth-trade. He worked at his trade like any other journeyman, and in proof of the busy life he led he states that notwithstanding that there was but one other journeyman beside himself, his master, in the course of a year, finished and set quite 900 pieces of cloth belonging to about a dozen merchants. Behaim, whilst in the service of Heberlein, was permitted to speculate in cloth on his own account on condition of the cloth being dyed in his master's dye-house. Three hundred gulden(7) which he had received from his mother, at the last Frankfurt Lent-fair, had been invested by him at the Bergen fair(8) in English white cloth, which the men in the dye-house pronounced to be of very superior quality. This cloth, when he wrote his letter, had already been teazled, raised and cut; it was to be dyed in the course of a week, after which it would be set, finished, and folded, and forwarded to Nuremberg, where he hoped it would realise a good profit. He takes this opportunity to express a wish for a senior partner, who would put money into the business, and by whose experience he might profit. Every business, he tells his uncle, should be carried on in partnership, one partner to buy, the other to sell.
From June 8, 1479, the date of the interesting letter which we have thus largely quoted, up to March 1, 1483, on which day Martin Behaim appeared before a magistrate at Nuremberg to answer a charge of having danced on Ember day at a Jewish wedding, we know absolutely nothing about his movements. Most probably he resided during the whole of that time at Antwerp, occasionally visiting the Frankfurt fair and his friends at Nuremberg. Dr. S. Günther,(9) however, and Dr. S. Ruge,(10) suppose him to have paid during that time a flying visit to Lisbon. The former supposes that visit to have been paid in 1483. At Lisbon he might thus have heard about the efforts which were being made to improve the art of navigation, and having mentioned incidentally that as a pupil of the famous Regiomontanus he had some knowledge of astronomical observations, was summoned before the king and invited to join a Junta dos Mathematicos. Behaim, Dr. Günther supposes, then returned to Antwerp, wound up his business, came back to Lisbon, entered the Portuguese service, and was appointed cosmographer of Cão's expedition.
Dr. Ruge suggests that he visited Lisbon in 1481, and came to Nuremberg for the purpose of procuring astronomical instruments.
It need hardly be added that all this is mere conjecture. As to the Junta I shall have to say more in a following chapter.
After this digression let us return to Nuremberg and the 1st of March, 1483; when Martin Behaim, Hans Imhof and three others were charged with having been present at a Jew's wedding on Ember day (February 26). Martin Behaim and Sebald Deichsler, having actually danced at that wedding-a heinous offence, as it was Lent -were condemned to a week's imprisonment; the others escaped with a reprimand. The sentence, in the case of Behaim, was allowed to stand over until his return from an intended visit to the fair at Frankfurt.(11) History doth not tell whether the culprit ever returned to Nuremberg to undergo his punishment.
We next meet with Martin Behaim in October or November, 1483, at the "cold" fair at Bergen,(12) when Hamran Gross, on behalf of Nicolas Schlewitzer of Nuremberg, lent him 50 Andreas gulden.(13) In addition to this he acknowledges to have received from Schlewitzer 5 rosaries, worth 1½ gulden Rhenish, (14) golden rings, as also a piece of gold lace, worth 1 gulden, all of which he was to have sold on commission. Schlewitzer had moreover paid for him at Nuremberg half a gulden for wax candles.
Altogether he owed to this creditor 58 gulden 3 ort, and as he was about to proceed to foreign parts he promised to pay this debt on his return, and provided that, in case of his death, it should be paid by his executors, heirs or assigns. By a second bond, drawn up in favour of his uncle, Leonhard Hirschvogel, he acknowledged to have received 9 sacks of galls,2 weighing at Antwerp 31 cwts, to be sold by him, and promises payment as in the case of Schlewitzer. These bonds were dated May 3, 1484.
Martin Behaim then left Antwerp for Portugal, and as his creditors heard no more from him they applied to his brother Stephan for payment, and on February 13, 1489 they were paid the sums claimed; namely, Hirschvogel 110 gulden Rhenish currency for his galls, and Schlewitzer 58 gulden 3 ort, as stated above.
I publish in the Appendix all the letters still available which Martin Behaim wrote up to the time he left Antwerp for Portugal. They are homely letters, dealing with family affairs and commercial matters, but it would be vain to look for any indication that their writer took the slightest interest in science, literature or art. Among the merchandise incidentally referred to neither books nor scientific instruments find a place.(15)
(1) The letters written by Behaim from Mechlin (April 17 and October 13,1477), Frankfurt (September 17, 1478), and Antwerp (June 8,1479), as well as the important legal documents drawn up at Nuremberg on February 13, 1489, will be found in the Appendix, pp. 107-111. There are no documents for the years 1480, 1481 and 1482. back
(2) Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, fell before Nancy on January 5, 1477. On Maximilian's marriage, see U. Legeay, `Histoire de Louis XI.' (Paris, 1874, II., p. 279), and Kervyn de Lettenhove, `Histoire de Flandres' (Bruges, 1874, IV., p. 159). The ambassy was headed by the Electors of Treves and Mayence, and among its memhers were the Markgraves of Brandenburg and Baden, Duke Louis of Bavaria, and others. The ambassadors were attended by George Hesler, the Chancellor of the Empire, and by five or six hundred spearmen. back
(3) An exaggeration, if the ordinary German miles are meant. The French, at the time, were certainly at Tournai, which they had occupied on May 23, and which is no more than 12 German miles from Mechlin, as the crow flies. back
(4) See his letter of October 13, 1477. Appendix II. back
(5) See Appendix IV., p. 109. back
(6) Algorithm, or ciphering, according to the decimal notation, as employed by the Arabs, first described by Leonardo Bonacci, of Pisa, in his `Liber Abaci,' 1202. back
(7) Each of these gulden was worth about 10 shillings. back
(8) Mr. B. J. Mes, Keeper of the Archives of Bergen-of-Zoom, kindly informs me that the town had two fairs annually, one a Voorjaarmarkt, which began a fortnight after Easter and lasted three weeks, and a koude markt, which began in the middle of October and lasted six weeks. Both the "early" and "cold" fairs were much frequented by English merchants, who occupied the stores in a street still called Engelsche Straat. The "early" fair in 1749 thus lasted from April 25 to May 16, and, as the Frankfurt fair ended on April 21, there was plenty of time to visit the former. back
(9) Günther, `Martin Behaim,' p. 12. back
(10) Petermann's Mitteilungen, 1890, Litt. No. 1,680. back
(11) For the legal documents referring to this case see Appendix, p. 110. The Frankfurt fair began on March 19. back
(12) The incidents referred to in what follows are detailed in a legal document drawn up at Nuremberg in February, 1489, and published by Dr. Günther (`Martin Behaim,' p. 53-54). The bonds given by Behaim to Leonhard Hirschvogel and Nicolas Schlewitzer on May 4, 1484, are embodied in it. It is a verbose document, such as would delight the heart of an English lawyer (see Appendix VI.). I have consulted the original at Nuremberg and corrected a few misprints in Günther's copy. XXI. should be XXIc (2100 or 21 cwts.); andrisser, which has puzzled commentators, andrissz guld (Andres gulden). back
(13) The Andreas gulden were struck in 1470 by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, whose patron saint was St. Andrew; their value was about 10 shillings. back
(14) Galls were tumours produced by the punctures of insects on several species of oak-trees. They were used as a medicine, and for the purpose of dyeing and making ink. The Syrian galls, which were imported by way of Venice, were valued most highly. back
(15) For a facsimile of the letter dated Mechlin, October 13, 1477, (Appendix II.) see Plate, p. 108. back
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