ble and wise Herr Willibald Pirkheimer, Burgher of Nuremberg,"
which were walled up in the Imhoff mansion during the Thirty Years'
War, and discovered at a later age. Much of these letters is taken up
with details about Pirkheimer's commissions for precious stones and
books, or with badinage about the burgher's private life, with
frequent allusions to the support of the Duerers at home. Of greater
interest are the accounts of the writer's successes in art, and the
friends whom he met in Venetian society. The letters were embellished
with rude caricatures and grotesques, matching the broad humor of the
jovial allusions in the text. Either Pirkheimer was a man of most
riotous life, or Duerer was a bold and pertinacious jester, unwearying
in mock-earnest reproofs. These letters were sealed with the Duerer
crest, composed of a pair of open doors above three steps on a shield,
which was a punning allusion to the name Duerer, or Thuerer, _Thuer_
being the German word for _door_. In the second letter he says,--

"I wish you were in Venice. There are many fine fellows among
the painters, who get more and more friendly with me; it
holds one's heart up. Well-brought-up folks, good
lute-players, skilled pipers, and many noble and excellent
people, are in the company, all wishing me very well, and
being very friendly. On the other hand, here are the falsest,
most lying, thievish villains in the whole world, appearing
to the unwary the pleasantest possible fellows. I laugh to
myself when they try it with me: the fact is, they know their
rascality is public, though one says nothing. I have many
good friends among the Italians, who warn me not to eat or
drink with their painters; for many of them are my enemies,
and copy my picture in the church, and others of mine
wherever they meet with them; and yet, notwithstanding this,
they abuse my works, and say that they are not according to
ancient art, and therefore not good. But Gian Bellini has
praised me highly before several gentlemen, and he wishes to
have something of my painting. He came himself, and asked me
to do something for him, saying that he would pay me well for
it; and all the people here tell me what a good man he is, so
that I also am greatly inclined to him."

These sentences show the artist's pleasure at the kindly way in which
the Italians received him, and also reveal the danger in wh