e Great and Little
Passions.--Life of the Virgin.--Plagiarists.--Works for the Emperor
Maximilian 63

CHAPTER V.

1514-1520.

St. Jerome.--The Melencolia.--Death of Duerer's Mother.--Raphael.
--Etchings.--Maximilian's Arch.--Visit to Augsburg 81

CHAPTER VI.

1520-1522.

Duerer's Tour in the Netherlands.--His Journal.--Cologne.--Feasts
at Antwerp and Brussels.--Procession of Notre Dame.--The
Confirmatia.--Zealand Journey.--Ghent.--Martin Luther 94

CHAPTER VII.

1522-1526.

Nuremberg's Reformation.--The Little Masters.--Glass-Painting.
--Architecture.--Letter to the City Council.--"Art of Mensuration."
--Portraits.--Melanchthon 118

CHAPTER VIII.

1526-1528.

"The Four Apostles."--Duerer's Later Literary Works.--Four Books of
Proportion.--Last Sickness and Death.--Agnes Duerer.--Duerer described
by a Friend 131

ALBERT DUeRER.

CHAPTER I.

The Activities of Nuremberg.--The Duerer Family.--Early Years of
Albert.--His Studies with Wohlgemuth.--The _Wander-Jahre._

The free imperial city of Nuremberg, in the heart of Franconia, was
one of the chief centres of the active life of the Middle Ages, and
shared with Augsburg the great trans-continental traffic between
Venice and the Levant and Northern Europe. Its municipal liberties
were jealously guarded by venerable guilds and by eminent magistrates
drawn from the families of the merchant-princes, forming a government
somewhat similar to the Venetian Council. The profits of a commercial
prosperity second only to that of the Italian ports had greatly
enriched the thrifty burghers, aided by the busy manufacturing
establishments which made the city "the Birmingham of the Middle
Ages." Public and private munificence exerted itself in the erection
and adornment of new and splendid buildings; and the preparation of
works of art and utility was stimulated on all sides. It was the era
of the discovery of America, the revival of classic learning, and the
growth of free thought in matters pertaining to religion. So far had
the inventions of the artisans contributed to the comfort of the
people, that Pope Pius II. said that "A Nuremberg citizen is better
lodged than the King of Scots;" and so widely were they exported to
foreign realms, that the proud