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represent the Schwarzbach or " Black beck."1 At
Nuremberg the Behaims engaged in trade, acquired
wealth, gained admission among the patrician families
and assumed a coat of arms. As early as 1332, a member
of the family, one Albrecht Behaim, a grocer, was elected
one of the burgomasters of the city, and occupied that
honourable position until 1342. The Senate of Nuremberg
was consequently fully justified when, in a letter
addressed to King Manuel on June 7, 1518,2 on behalf of
Martin Behaim's son, it spoke of " familia Bohemorum in
civitate nostra Nurembergensis ultra ducentos annos
honestissime et egregie perdurasse." In a second letter
the senate, as if doubtful whether the king would
recognise the members of Patrician families as " noblemen
," added that the family held likewise several feudal
estates outside the city. These estates included two male
fiefs at Ruckersdorf, near Lauf, on the Pegnitz, and at
Kurssendorf (Kurzendorf), a few miles to the south of
Ansbach, as also a grange at Katerbach, to the north of
Ansbach conferred by the Bishop of Wurzburg.s

Martin Behaim,4 the father of the " Navigator," was
the younger son of Michael Behaim (b. 1400) and of
E. Hirschvogel. He was born on November 10, 1437,6
married, in 1458, Agnes, the daughter of Wilhelm
Schopper and Mistress Muffel, was elected Senator in 1461,
and died on August 6,1474. He was a general merchant,
and in his younger years business had taken him as far as
Venice. His wife survived him thirteen years and died
on July 8, 1487. She had borne her husband seven
children, of whom Martin, the subject of this history, was
the eldest and cannot therefore have been born earlier

1 The following is a description of the coat of arms of the Behaims:—
Shield gules and argent, party per pale, and charged with a wavy bend
sable. Crest: a white phoenix, rising, with black collar. I am able—
thanks to the kindness of Baron Behaim—to present the readers with a
design of this coat by Albert Diirer, together with a copy of the letter
written by the famous artist (see Appendix XIII.).

'* The Behaims of Schwarzbach had no doubt done excellent service in
the government of their city, but none amongst them had won distinction
in art, science or literature, whilst several namesakes of theirs, not
belonging to the family, had done so. Dr. Christoph Scheurl (whose
interesting autobiography is published in the ' Mittheilungen d. Vereins
fiir die Geschichte Niirnberg's,' V.) in an obituary on Dean A. Kress
(1513), who was succeeded by a nephew of the famous architect
Hanns Behaim, had the temerity to dwell upon this point, whereat
the Town Council felt highly indignant, severely reprimanded him,
and ordered this obituary to be suppressed (G. W. K. Lochner, ' Allgem.
Deutsche Biographie.') G. W. Lochner was born 1798, and died 1882.

3 For the two letters of the Senate, see Appendix XII. The three
feudal estates are mentioned by Lochner,' Selecta Archivalia,' I., 243, and
Giinther, p. 7.

* The numerous MS. " genealogies " to be found at Nuremberg abound
in discrepancies and obvious mistakes, nor is J. G. Biedermann's
' Geschlechtsregister des hochadligen Patriciats in Nurnberg' (Baireuth,
1745) always to be trusted.

& Ghiliany (p. 17) opines that he must have been born earlier, say in
1430, as there are still extant letters written by him between 1455 and
1457, when he was travelling and collecting debts due to the firm. He
publishes two of these letters, and thinks he must have been older than
eighteen when entrusted with such duties. However, 1437 is the date
given in all genealogies and in the ' Familienbuch.'

than 1459.° Among the executors of her last will and
testament is to be found the name of Bartholomew von
Eyb, whom I shall have occasion to refer to later on, in
connection with Martin's commercial training. Both
parents were buried in the church of the Dominicans.

In what follows I shall give some information on the
children of Martin Behaim and Agnes Schopper.

Martin Behaim, the eldest of the three sons, was probably
born in 1459, and will be fully dealt with later on.

Stephan, the second son, was born about 1460, married
Margareta Ortolph in 1500, and died in 1511. He was
Assessor of the City Court and of the Court for matrimonial
causes. He left two sons, of whom his brother
Michael writes in 1518 that the elder was intended for
the priesthood, whilst the younger was not very robust
(notvest).7 His widow married Hans von Obernitz, who
subsequently held the post of Imperial bailli or Reichs-
schulteis.

Michael, the third son, is stated to have been born in
1474. He married Catherina Lochner in 1495, was
knighted (probably by the Emperor Maximilian), elected
a member of the Senate in 1502 and died in 1522. He
had no children, a fact which he deplores in a letter to
Jorg Pock, written in 1518. His widow died in 1527.
It was Michael who at the request of the Emperor
Maximilian, during a visit to Nuremberg in November,
1500, consulted the antiquary Sebald Schreyer why an
eagle on one of the ceilings of the Burg was painted
yellow instead of black as usual.8 Michael took a
friendly interest in the son of his brother Martin.9

Wolf or Wolf rath, the youngest of the brothers, and
hence occasionally referred to as Wulflein—Little Wolf—
spent most of his fife abroad. Between 1491 and 1496 he
was at Lyons, in the sendee of the Tucher, and subsequently
at Geneva. Letters from him during this period
are still extant, but they only contain two incidental
references to his brother Martin, which shall be quoted in
due course. On February 2, 1503, whilst on a visit to
Nuremberg, he rode in a tournament, and was awarded
the seventh prize. In 1505 or 1506 he came to Lisbon,
as agent of his maternal uncle Hirschvogel, and died
there on March 20, 1507, a bachelor. He was buried in
the church of Sta. Maria da Conceicao, by the side of
Paulus Imhof or Incurio,10 a fellow townsman. Wolf
seems to have dabbled in science, for genealogists refer to
him as " astrologus."

6 Murr (p. 45), who saw the letters referred to above, erroneously
assumed them to have been written by Martin the son, and thus was
led into making serious mistakes as to dates. The subject is fully
discussed by Ghiliany, pp. 10, 25.

7 Michael to Jorg Pock (Ghiliany, p. 112).

8 Ghiliany and C. Heideloff, ' Der deutsche Adler und die deutschen
Farben,' Stuttgart, 1848, p. 9.

9 For letters written by him in 1507 (to his nephew) and in 1518
(to Jorg Pock), see Ghiliany, pp. 107-113.

10 According to Pock's letter of March, 1519 (Ghiliany, p. 114), but
see c. xv.