ons, and the
garrison making a sortie against the enemy.

The celebrated "Four Books of Human Proportion" was Duerer's greatest
literary work, and was completed about this time, having been begun
in 1523. Its preparation was suggested by Pirkheimer, to whom it was
dedicated, and who published it after the author's death, with a long
Latin elegy on him. Great labor was bestowed on this work, and many of
the original sketches and notes are still preserved. The first and
second books show the correct proportions of the human body and its
members, according to scale, dividing the body into seven parts, each
of which has the same measurement as the head, and then considering
it in eighths. The proportions of children are also treated of; and
the dogma is formulated, that the woman should be one-eighteenth
shorter than the man. The third book is devoted to transposing or
changing these proportions, and contains examples of distorted and
unsymmetrical figures; and the fourth book treats of foreshortening,
and shows the human body in motion. In his preface he says: "Let no
one think that I am presumptuous enough to imagine that I have written
a wonderful book, or seek to raise myself above others. This be far
from me! for I know well that but small and mediocre understanding
and art can be found in the following work."

The high appreciation in which this book was held appears from the
fact that it passed through several German editions, besides three
Latin, two Italian, two French, Portuguese, Dutch, and English
editions. Most of the original MS. is now in the British Museum.

Among Duerer's other works were treatises on Civic Architecture, Music,
the Art of Fencing, Landscape-Painting, Colors, Painting, and the
Proportions of the Horse.

But the year 1527 was nearly barren of new art-works; for the master's
hand was losing its power, and his busy brain had grown weary. His
constitution was slowly yielding before the fatal advances of a
wasting disease, possibly the low fever which he had contracted in
Zealand, or it may have been an affection of the lungs. In the latter
days he made a memorandum: "Regarding the belongings I have amassed by
my own handiwork, I have not had a great chance to become rich, and
have had plenty of losses; having lent without being repaid, and my
work-people have not reckoned with me; also my agent at Rome died,
after using up my property. Half of this loss was thirteen years ago,
and I have bl