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XII. A VISIT TO NUREMBERG, 1490-93.

Object of the Visit.

IN the spring of 1490 Martin Behaim left his island home on a visit to his native town of Nuremberg, where he arrived in the summer of the same year. After an absence of seven years he may well have desired to revisit the scenes of his youth and to see his relatives, but the immediate object of his journey was of a business nature. His mother having died in 1487, the time had arrived for a distribution of her estate among the heirs. During his long stay at Nuremberg, Martin was the guest of his cousin Michael, the son of his uncle Leonhard, and Senior Familiae, who lived in the Zistelgasse.(1)

Business Transactions.

Legal steps in connection with the realization of the estate and its distribution appear to have been taken without loss of time, for on August 9, 1490, the legatees appeared before the court charged with testamentary business. Three brothers, Martin, Stephen and Michael, and the sister, Ursula, the wife of Ulrich Futterer, appeared personally, whilst Wolfrath, who was absent at Lyon, was represented by attorney.(2) On this occasion the distribution of the personal effects of the parents, including pearls and jewellery, was effected.

On the Wednesday after Ladyday, 1491 (March 30), Martin, on receipt of 800 gulden, surrendered his share in his father's house in the market-square.

On May 2, 1491, Ortolf Stromayr or Stromer purchased a house " unter der Vesten" (below the castle) which Martin's father had inherited in 1435, and which stood next to a house inhabited from 1427 to 1502 by the father of Albrecht Dürer, the famous artist. Stromayr paid 1050 gulden for this house, and Martin's share-210 gulden-was paid to him forthwith.

On August 5, 1491, the feuds of the family outside Nuremberg were dealt with. They included estates at Rückersdorf (near Lauf on the Pegnitz) and Kurssendorf (now Kurzenbach, to the south of Onolzbach or Ansbach), and a farm, Katenbach, near this town. As Behaim intended to live abroad he accepted 83 gulden in lieu of his claims to these feuds. Finally, on August 17 he was paid 126 gulden as his share of a house " unter den Flaischbänken"-the Flesher's row-which had been sold to Endres Flock. Martin's share from the sale of his mother's real estate thus amounted to 1219 gulden Rhenish or about £600, and if we add to this his share of the personal estate, a report current in Fayal that he returned from this visit to Germany with " great riches" had some foundation in fact.(3)

But whilst Martin's legal proceedings in connection with his heirship were no doubt of a pleasant nature, he was troubled, at the same time, with claims for the payment of debts incurred by him before his departure for Portugal. His brother Stephen had paid, on February 13, 1489, the 168 gulden which, ever since 1484, he owed to his uncle Leonhard Hirschvogel and to Niklas Schlewitzer, and had to be indemnified.(4)

Other liabilities were disposed of on December 13, 1490, and February 2, 1491. On the former date Martin was adjudged to pay Hermann Zwaypfund for 70 lbs. of lidlons (nails?), which had been supplied to him; on the latter he paid off a bond debt of 48 gulden, which he owed to Heinrich Zimmer, who had transferred it to Catherine, the widow of Hans Behaim the stonemason, and for which his brother Michael had become security.(5)

Behaim's Globe.

There were no doubt other transactions of a financial or legal nature, of which no record has been preserved, but we are pretty safe in assuming that the business which had brought Martin Behaim to Nuremberg had been satisfactorily settled by the end of August 1491. He might therefore have departed for his distant island home at once, but it pleased him to extend the duration of his visit for another couple of years. It is to this extension of his visit that we are indebted for the famous globe. Behaim no doubt interested his fellow-townsmen by the account he gave of his life in the far-off Azores and during a voyage to Guinea. The merchants of the Imperial city had their "Inn" or " fondaco" at Venice and were fairly well acquainted with the trade of the Levant; numbers among them had visited Egypt and the Holy Land,(6) but their knowledge of Portugal and of the African discoveries made by the Portuguese was still somewhat vague. But not only merchants and craftsmen, desirous of discovering new fields for their enterprise, may be supposed to have listened with interest to the tales of the young traveller staying amongst them; men of learning are known to have done so likewise. We know at all events that Hartmann Schedel, the author of the Chronicle, accepted from him and printed an account of his voyage, and that Dr. H. Müntzer or Monetarius furnished him with a letter of recommendation to King John, which is printed in the Appendix. Other " shining lights" of the Nuremberg of those days-Bernhardt Walther (b. 1430, d. 1504), the friend and pupil of Regiomontanus, whose library he bought, Sebald Schreyer, the antiquary (see p. 6), and the youthful astronomer Johann Werner (b. 1468, d. 1528), and even visitors like Conrad Celtes or Pickel (p. 2)-may be presumed to have had personal intercourse with Martin Behaim, although his name is not mentioned once in any of their published writings. Nor can it be doubted that Martin Behaim was introduced to the Emperor Maximilian, who arrived at Nuremberg on March 15, 1491, to preside over a Reichstag, gave two balls to the Patricians in the Townhall on June 14 and 27, and organised other festivities.(7) It was probably on one of these occasions that he said `Martino Bohemo nemo unus imperii civium magis umquam peregrinator fuit, magisque remotas orbis adivit regiones,' (8) which was perfectly true at the time when it is supposed to have been spoken.

It was, however, a member of the Town Council, George Holzschuher,(9) to whom Martin Behaim became indebted for the greater part of the fame which he still enjoys. George Holzschuher in 1470 had visited Egypt and the Holy Land, and he evidently took some interest in the progress of geographical discoveries. It was he who suggested to his colleagues of the Rat that Behaim should be requested to undertake the making of a globe, upon which the recent discoveries of the Portuguese should be delineated. His suggestion was accepted, and to him we are indebted for the famous globe, a full account of which I shall give in the second part of this work.

Martin Behaim's Family Relations.

But whatever popularity Martin Behaim may have enjoyed among his fellow townsmen, he certainly does not appear to have secured the affections of his own kith and kin. We have already learnt that Martin, when first he came to Nuremberg, became the guest of his cousin Michael, the son of his uncle Leonhard. His reception, at first, may have been cordial enough, but his prolonged stay and idleness proved irksome in the end. This at least we gather from two letters which his brother Wolf, who was at the time at Lyon, wrote to his cousin Michael. In the first of these letters,(10) written on November 22, 1491, Wolf says:

"Moreover, you let me know that my brother Martin is still at Nuremberg, and in your house, and that his conduct is singular (seltzams wesen). I am sorry to hear this. Here at Lyon they say things about him which make me ashamed. I should be very glad if we were rid of him altogether."

From a subsequent letter(11) dated December 5, 1492, we learn that "Martin does nothing in particular, but goes daily into the garden, and only concerns himself with the garden," adding that if he took such an interest in plants he might at least set up as a dealer in herbs. Ghillany suggests that the Nurembergers expected Martin to work all day in a merchant's office, or took offence at his gay southern dress. On this latter point, however, we know nothing. Martin may not have worn gay clothes at all; and judging from his portrait, which shows him with hair hanging down to the shoulders and clean-shaven, he certainly had not adopted the Portuguese practice of cutting the hair short and allowing the beard to grow. Dr. Günther (p. 35) speaks of the Nurembergers of that age as being in a measure narrow-minded (spiessbürgerlich),(12) most punctilious in the fulfilment of the duties of their rank and calling, but out of sympathy with a man of the type of a Martin Behaim, and with views of life which did not accord in every respect with their own. Dr. Günther, I believe, is unjust to the inhabitants of his native town. Conrad Celtes, who had a good knowledge of the town, and who certainly was neither a bigot nor a saint, admits that the inhabitants were keen business men, but at the same time credits them with qualities which are not reconcilable with narrow-mindedness. As to myself I agree with W. M. Thackeray when he protests against the theory "that men of letters, and what is called genius, are to be exempt from the prose duties of this daily, bread-wanting, tax- paying life, and are not to be made to work and pay like their neighbours."

But whatever the relations between Martin and his kinsmen, he must have felt very comfortable at Nuremberg, or he would not have lingered there long beyond the time needed for the settlement of his legal business and the production of his globe, seemingly forgetful that he had left a wife in Fayal who may have been anxiously looking forward to his return.

Departure.

At length, in July 1493, and after a stay of nearly three years, Martin Behaim left Nuremberg, carrying with him not only his "goods," but also a letter of his friend Dr. H. Monetarius to King John of Portugal, in which he directs the King's attention to the bearer as a person well qualified to be employed in an exploring voyage to the west.(13)

Footnotes

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