ry strange
clothing, bed-gear and all kinds of the most wonderful things for
man's use, that are as beautiful to behold as they are wonderful.
These things are all so costly, that they have been valued at 100,000
gulden. And I have never in all the days of my life seen any thing
that has so much rejoiced my heart as these things. For I have seen
among them wonderfully artistic things, and I have wondered at the
subtle _Ingenia_ of men in foreign lands."

While at Brussels Duerer was the guest of Conrad the sculptor, and
Ebner the Nuremberg ambassador. He returned at length to Antwerp,
where his Portuguese friends sent him several maiolica bowls and some
Calcutta feathers, and his host gave also certain Indian and Turkish
curiosities. The jovial dinners with Planckfelt and Tomasin were again
begun, and were supplemented by feasts with the Von Rogendorffs and
Fugger's agent. The master gave away hundreds of his engravings here,
either to his friends or to influential courtiers; and all these
details he faithfully records. He seems to have been an indefatigable
investigator and collector of curiosities, imported trinkets, and
china. With childlike delight he narrates the brilliant spectacles
around him.

"I have seen, on the Sunday after the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady,
the great procession from Our Lady's Church at Antwerp, when the whole
town was assembled, artisans and people of rank, every one dressed in
the most costly manner according to its station. Every class and every
guild had its badge by which it might be recognized; large and costly
tapers were also borne by some of them. There were also long silver
trumpets of the old Frankish fashion. There were also many German
pipers and drummers, who piped and drummed their loudest. Also
I saw in the street, marching in a line in regular order, with
certain distances between, the goldsmiths, painters, stonemasons,
embroiderers, sculptors, joiners, carpenters, sailors, fishmongers,
... and all kinds of artisans who are useful in producing the
necessaries of life. In the same way there were the shopkeepers and
merchants and their clerks. After these came the marksmen with
firelocks, bows, and cross-bows, some on horseback and some on foot.
After that came the City Guards; and at last a mighty and beautiful
throng of different nations and religious orders, superbly costumed,
and each distinguished from the other, very piously. I remarked in
this procession a troop of