Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

Nuremberg, lent him 50 Andreas gulden.1 In addition
to this he acknowledges to have received from Schlewitzer
5 rosaries, worth l£ gulden Rhenish, 2 golden rings, as also
a piece of gold lace, worth 1 gulden, all of which he was
to have sold on commission. Schlewitzer had moreover
paid for him at Nuremberg half a gulden for wax candles.

Altogether he owed to this creditor 58 gulden 3 ort,
and as he was about to proceed to foreign parts he promised
to pay this debt on his return, and provided that, in case
of his death, it should be paid by his executors, heirs or
assigns. By a second bond, drawn up in favour of his uncle,
Leonhard Hirschvogel, he acknowledged to have received
9 sacks of galls,2 weighing at Antwerp 31 cwts, to be sold
by him, and promises payment as in the case of Schlewitzer.
These bonds were dated May 3, 1484.

Martin Behaim then left Antwerp for Portugal, and
as his creditors heard no more from him they applied to
his brother Stephan for payment, and on February 13,1489
they were paid the sums claimed; namely, Hirschvogel
110 gulden Rhenish currency for his galls, and Schlewitzer
58 gulden 3 ort, as stated above.

I publish in the Appendix all the letters still available
which Martin Behaim wrote up to the time he left
Antwerp for Portugal. They are homely letters, dealing
with family affairs and commercial matters, but it would
be vain to look for any indication that their writer took
the slightest interest in science, literature or art. Among
the merchandise incidentally referred to neither books nor
scientific instruments find a place.3

V. BEHAIM IN PORTUGAL.

It was thus at the earliest in June, 1484, that Martin
Behaim first came to Lisbon, for the suggestion that he
paid a flying visit to that city in 1481 or 1482 is not
supported by a scrap of evidence.

Nor do I think we do Behaim an injustice if we
assume that the main, if not the sole, object of this journey
was of a commercial nature.4 Commercial relations

embodied in it. It is a verbose document, such as would delight the heart
of an English lawyer (see Appendix VI.). I have consulted the original at
Nuremberg and corrected a few misprints in Gunther's copy. XXI.
should be XXIC (2100 or 21 cwts.); andrisser, which has puzzled commentators
, andrissz guld (Andres gulden).

1 The Andreas gulden were struck in 1470 by Charles the Bold of
Burgundy, whose patron saint was St. Andrew ; their value was about
10 shillings.

4 Galls were tumours produced by the punctures of insects on several
species of oak-trees. They were used as a medicine, and for the purpose
of dyeing and making ink. The Syrian galls, which were imported by way
of Venice, were valued most highly.

3 For a facsimile of the letter dated Mechlin, October 13, 1477,
(Appendix II.) see Plate, p. 108.

* J. F. Roth, ' Geschichte des niirnberg. Handels' (Leipzig, 1800), says
that Behaim's father already had commercial relations with Portugal, but
fails to give us documentary evidence in proof of this assertion.

between Portugal, on the one hand, and Flanders, the
Hanse towns and several cities of Upper Germany, on the
other, had long since been established. Portugal in
exchange for wine, oils, honey, wax, leather and fruit
received cloth, various manufactured goods and corn ; the
Portuguese had their national bursa at Brugge since
1373, and Royal " factors" or Consuls resided at that
city and at Antwerp.5

Germans at Lisbon.

At Lisbon Behaim in the course of time was soon to
meet many of his own countrymen and even townsmen,
and these included not only merchants, but also printers
and " bombardiers " in the Royal service.6 It was, however
, only until several years after Behaim's arrival in
Portugal that the houses of Imhof or Incurio, Hirschvogel
and Hochstetter of Nuremberg established agencies at
Lisbon, and jointly with Fugger and Welser of Augsburg
chartered three vessels which sailed on a voyage to India
with Francisco de Almeida's fleet in 1505.7 Accounts of
this voyage were written by Balthasar Sprenger of Vils in
the Tyrol,8 and Hans Mayr, whose narrative is included
among documents collected by Valentin Ferdinand the
printer.9 Members of the families of Imhof and Holz-
schuher appear to have resided at Lisbon at various times.
A Paulus Imhof died there, after many years' residence,
in 1507 ; a Wolfgang Holzschuher was knighted by King
Manuel in 1503, for having valiantly fought against the
Moors; a Jacob Holzschuher died at Lisbon in 1504 ;
and a Peter Holzschuher died on a voyage to India in
1504. Wolf Behaim, the youngest brother of Martin,
came to Lisbon as agent or partner of these Hirschvogels,
his kinsmen, and died there on March 20, 1507, only
four months before his brother. Another Nuremberger,
Hans Stromer, who had accompanied the Markgraf
.lohann Albrecht of Brandenburg to the Holy Land, in
1435, died at Lisbon in 1490. Among other Germans
who resided in Portugal, and who must have known
Behaim personally or by reputation, were Lucas Rem and
Simon Seitz, or Sayes, both of Augsburg. The former
acted as representative of the Welsers in 1503, the latter
came to Lisbon in 1503 and remained there until 1510,
keeping all the while a diary,10 in which Behaim is not
once referred to. The printer, Valentin Ferdinand, has
already been mentioned. He acted as interpreter to

5 Reiffenberg, ' Relations anciens de la Belgique et du Portugal'
(' Nouv. mem. de l'Ac. de Bruges,' XIV., p. 25).

6 J. G. Biedermann, ' Geschechtsregister' (Bamberg, 1748), Kunst-
mann, ' Die Deutschen in Portugal' (Suppt. ' Allgem. Zeitung,' October
25, 1847).

7 The German merchants risked 36,000 ducats in this venture.

8 ' Die meerfart unn erfarung niiwer schiffung, 1509,' of which a
facs. reprint was published at Strassburg in 1902, with a critical essay
by J. H. F. Schulze.

» ' Bol. Soc. Geogr.,' Lisbon, XVII., 1901, p. 355.
1U B. Greiff published this diary in the ' 26 Jahresbericht des hist.
Kreisvereins in Schwaben, 1861.'