ESS FASTENINGS.

Greek and Roman fibulae--Roman enamelled brooches--Bow or harp-shaped
fibulae--Bust of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus--Early grotesque
brooches--Circular fibulae--Anglo-Saxon pins--Irish and Scotch brooches
and pins 159-183

ALBERT DUeRER: HIS WORKS, HIS COMPATRIOTS, AND HIS TIMES.

Nuernberg--Birth of Duerer--His early youth--Michael Wohlgemuth--Duerer's
early works--He settles at Nuernberg--His house--Martin Koetzel--Nuernberg
Castle--Duerer's paintings, woodcuts, and engravings--Melchior
Pfintzing--Pirkheimer--Peter Vischer--Shrine of St. Sebald--Adam
Krafft--Veit Stoss--Hans Sachs, "the cobbler-bard"--Albert
Kuegler--Death of Duerer--The Cemetery of St. John, Nuernberg--Grave of
Duerer 185-259

[Illustration]

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.

RAMBLES OF AN ARCHAEOLOGIST AMONG OLD BOOKS AND IN OLD PLACES.

CHAPTER I.

Long after the extinction of the practical art-power evolved from the
master-minds of Greece and Rome, though rudely shattered by the northern
tribes, it failed not to enforce from them an admission of its grandeur.
Loving, as all rude nations do, so much of art as goes to the adornment
of life, they also felt that there was a still higher aim in the
enlarged spirit of classic invention. It is recorded that one of these
ancient chieftains gazed thoughtfully in Rome upon the noble statuary of
the fallen race, and declared it the work of men superior to any then
remaining, and that all the creations of such lost power should be
carefully preserved. The quaint imaginings of uncivilised
art-workmanship bore the impress of a strong but ruder nature;
elaboration took the place of elegance, magnificence that of grandeur.
Slowly, as centuries evolved, the art-student came back to the purity of
antique taste; but the process was a tardy one, each era preferring the
impress of its own ideas: and though the grotesque contortions of
mediaeval statuary be occasionally modified by the influence of better
art on the Gothic mind, it was not till the revival of the study of
classic literature, in the fifteenth century, that men began to inquire
into the art of the past ages, and endeavoured to obtain somewhat of its
sacred fire for the use of their own time. The study was rewarded, and
the style popularly known as that of the _