Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

Ursula, though stated to have been born as late as
April, 1473, seems to have been the eldest of the three
sisters. In 1489 she married Ulrich Futterer, a wealthy
merchant, who left her a widow in 1524. She survived
him until October 29, 1529.

Elsbeih, said to have been born in 1466, became a nun
in the convent of Sta. Clara, and died in 1536.1

Magdalena entered the convent of St. Catherine in
1482, and died there in 1538. Her aunt, Anna Schopper,
likewise lived in this convent, which had been founded
in 1380, and the chapel of which is still used as a place
of worship.

Among other members of the family are the
following:—

Leonhard, the elder brother of Martin's father, born
about 1432. He married Kunigunde Volkamer in 1455
and died in the family mansion in Zistel Street,2 on
December 1, 1486. His wife, born in 1438, died in 1488
(or 1496). He was a member of the Senate. After his
brother's death he took an active interest in the widow
and orphaned children. Martin Behaim addressed this
uncle as Vetter or cousin, and kept up a desultory correspondence
with him for twenty-four years.

Michael, a son of Leonhard, was born in 1459. He was
therefore of the same age as his cousin Martin. He, too,
was intended for a commercial career, for in 1478 he was
sent to Vienna, into a grocery business ;3 but later on he
settled at Nuremberg, where he married, and held several
municipal offices, and, like other members of the family,
advanced to the dignity of Senator. He died in 1511, his
wife, ne'e Winter, surviving him until 1519. Martin
Behaim, during his visit to Nuremberg, 1490-93, resided
with this Michael, and Wolf corresponded with him up to
the time of his death, in 1507.

Frederick, a son of Michael, born 1491, married an
Imhof, and died in 1533.

III. EARLY YEARS, 1459-1476.

The house in which Martin Behaim was born has undergone
many alterations since the fifteenth century, but its
windows still look out upon the spacious market-square,
the scene of sports and tournaments in Behaim's day,
and the eyes dwell with delight upon the richly-carved
front of St. Mary's Chapel, the brightly-coloured
" Beautiful Fountain,"4 and quite a number of gabled

1 This convent was founded in 1380, and is at present used as a
municipal pawnshop.

2 Now No. 4 Albert Diirer Street, a house of business. ■

3 See Martin Behaim's letter of September 17, 1478. The letters,
written between 1455-7 and published by Ghillany, pp. 101-2, are by
Martin's father.

* The " Schone Brunnen " with its numerous statuettes is stated to
have been erected between 1385 and 1396. It has recently been
restored and regilt.

houses. Illustrated inscriptions in German inform the
beholder that " Martin Behaim the Navigator, and Maker
of the famous globe, was born in this house about the year
1459," and that " In front of this house were exhibited to
the people, on the second Friday after Easter, from 1425
to 1520, the Imperial Crown Jewels and relics."5 These
Crown Jewels had beep entrusted to the keeping of
Nuremberg by the Emperor Sigismund of Brandenburg,
and up to 1796 were kept in the Church of the Holy
Spirit,6 when they were appropriated by the Emperor
Franz II. and carried to Vienna, where they still are.

Young Martin was intended to follow a commercial
career, and he received, no doubt, the most perfect
education suitable to his future which the Nuremberg of
those days afforded. We might thus assume him to have
attended the best of the four grammar schools connected
with the parish churches, namely, that of St. Sebald, where
the scholars spent four hours daily in learning reading,
writing, Latin, and Logic, and two in choir practice.7 It
is possible, however, that like other boys of " good"
family, he attended a select private school, and may even
have been allowed the luxury of a Hofmeisier, or tutor,
who accompanied him to school and superintended his
lessons and general conduct when away from it.8 His
commercial training he received, as a matter of course, in
his father's business, after whose death, in 1474, the
interests of the youth were looked after by his uncle
Leonard, and by Bartels (Bartholomew) von Eyb, a friend
of the family and one of the executors of the last will and
testament of his mother.

As a result of this course of instruction young Martin
gained a competent knowledge of reading, writing and
arithmetic, as also a fair acquaintance with Latin, and,
as a matter of course, with commercial affairs,, but if
he really and truthfully boasted at Lisbon, as asserted
by Joao de Barros,9 of having been a pupil of Regio-
montanus, we should expect him to have been likewise

s Martin Behaim der Seefahrer und Verfertiger des ber&hmten Globus
wurde in diesem Hause geboren urn das Jahr 1459.

Vor diesem Hause tcurden von 1425 bis 1520 am 2 Freitag nach Ostem
die Beichskleinodien und Heiligthiimcr dem Volke gezeigt.

The illustrative designs are plainly visible in our illustration. For
an illustrated description of the Crown jewels see Murr, ' Beschreibung
der samtlichen Reichskleinodien oder Heiligthumer welche in Niirnberg
aufbewahrt werden,' Niirnberg, 1790.

6 The Heilige Geist or Spitalkirche was built 1333-41.

7 According to Heerwagen (' Zur Geschichte der Niirnberger Gelehr-
tenschulen,' Niirnberg, 1860) the four grammar schools attached to the
churches of S. Sebald, St. Lorenz, St. Egidia, and Holy Trinity were
attended, about 1485, by 245 paying pupils, and there were 4 schoolmasters
, 4 cantori, 7 baccalaurei, and 3 locati or caretakers. In 1485 the
Town Council reformed these schools. The fees were reduced and the
choir practices restricted to Sunday.

8 Dr. Gunther refers for authority for such a statement to the autobiography
of Christoph Scheurl, a contemporary of Behaim, published by
Prof. Chr. G. A. von Scheurl (b. 1811, d. ), one of his descendants, in
the ' Mitth. d. Vereins fur die Geschichte Nurnberg's,' Heft V., p. 13.

9 ' Da Asia' (Lisbon, 1778), t. I., P. L, p. 282.