Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

a good mathematician and astronomer. Johannes or
Hans Mueller of Konigsberg in Franconia, according to
Conrad Celtes,1 facile princeps among the mathematicians
and astronomers of his age, resided at Nuremberg from
the spring of 1471 to July 1475, when, unhappily, he
accepted an invitation to go to Rome in order that he
might advise on the proposed reform of the Calendar.2
Martin, at that time, was between twelve and sixteen
years of age, and might well have profited from the
instructions of so gifted a teacher. But as Regiomontanus
never taught or lectured in public whilst at Nuremberg,8
such knowledge as Behaim is assumed to have possessed
can only have been obtained by private intercourse, or in
the course of occasional visits which he paid to the
observatory and workshop which the great astronomer
owed to the liberality of his wealthy patron and pupil
Bernhardt Walther.4 At all events it may be granted
that Martin Behaim personally knew Regiomontanus, for
that astronomer was a popular figure in Nuremberg of
whose residence among them the citizens were not a little
proud. We doubt, however, whether Behaim was justified
when he spoke of himself as a " disciple" of the great
master. At all events, even if there was the slightest
claim to such a distinction he profited little by the
instruction received, as will appear in the course of our
essay.

IV. IN THE NETHERLANDS, 1476-84.6
Martin Behaim at Mechlin, 1476-79.

On the termination of his apprenticeship, in 1476, young
Martin was sent abroad in order that he might improve
his technical and commercial knowledge. He was first
placed with Jorius van Dorpp, a cloth-merchant of

1 ' De origine, situ, moribus et institutis Noriuibergae libellus,' Norimb.,
1492, c. vi. See p. 2, Note 8.

2 He died at Rome, July 6, 1476. See Gunther's Biography in the
' Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.'

3 It was Pierre de la Ramee (Petrus Ramus), the great French scholar
and opponent of Aristotelian dialectics, who in his 1 Scholae mathematical,'
1569, mistakenly credited the Town Council of Nuremberg with having
engaged Regiomontanus to deliver public lectures both in Latin and in
German. G. H. Schubert, ' Peurbach und Regiomontanus' (Erlangen,
1840), p. 35, speaks of this as a 'well-authenticated tradition,' but
F. C. Hagen, ' Programm der Handelsschule, 1888-9,' proves that the
first public teacher was only appointed in 1477. On this subject consult
S. Gunther, ' Geschichte des mathem. Unterrichts im deutschen Mittel-
alter,' Berlin, 1887. Petrus Ramus was born 1515, and died one of the
victims on the night of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 1572.

* Bernhardt Walther (b. 1430, d. 1504), fitted up for his friend an
observatory, a workshop for making astronomical instruments and globes,
and a printing office from which were issued thf- famous ' Ephemerides '
(1474) and other works.

5 The letters written by Behaim from Mechlin (April 17 and October
13, 1477), Frankfurt (September 17, 1478), and Antwerp (June 8, 1479),
as well as the important legal documents drawn up at Nuremberg on
February 13, 1489, will be found in the Appendix, pp. 107-111. There
are no documents for the years 1480, 1481 and 1482.

Mechlin, with whom he remained for over a year.
Mechlin was a dull place, but even then famous for its lace
and cloth, and boasted of an ancient cloth hall and a
cathedral, built out of the offerings of pilgrims who flocked
thither to win the indulgences promised to worshippers
at the shrine of St. Rombold. Whilst at Mechlin he
witnessed, on April 13, 1477, the arrival of the ambassy
of Frederick III., King of the Romans, which was to solicit
the hand of Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles the
Bold,6 for his son Maximilian. The nuptials took place
in due course on August 19 at Ghent. The people, so
Behaim tells us, had looked forward to this event with
" much gladness," for they hoped that Maximilian would
at once take the field and drive the French out of Artois,
Hainaut and Flanders, which they had invaded in the
beginning of the year, and where they had burnt villages,
sacked towns, and committed untold-of atrocities. They
were doomed to disappointment. A truce was indeed
agreed upon at Lens (September 18, 1477), but its terms
were little respected by the French. Behaim, writing
from Mechlin on October 13, 1477, tells us that whilst the
country was being laid waste, " the young gentleman of
Austria lay at Brugge with his fair wife." He adds that
the public treasure had been expended by the late Duke
in continuous wars, that no measures had been taken to
meet the French in the field, and that all the world
grumbled. As t^o himself, however, his uncle need fear
nothing, as the French were still 16 miles 7 from Mechlin,
and would have to capture four big towns before they
could appear before its walls.

Visits to the Fairs at Frankfurt were included in the
scheme of Behaim's commercial education. The first of
these visits was to have been paid at Easter 1477, but as
the roads were not safe at that time for travellers, Jorius
van Dorpp preferred to sell his cloth direct to a German
merchant at Antwerp. Later in the year Martin, by
desire of his mother, visited the autumn fair, when he was
initiated by his fatherly friend, Bartels von Eyb, into the
mysteries of buying and selling.8

Martin Behaim at Antwerp, 1479-84.

He was once more at Frankfurt in the following
autumn, and in a letter written to his uncle Leonhard, on
September 18,1778, he suggested a removal from Mechlin,

6 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, fell before Nancy on
January 5, 1477. On Maximilian's marriage, see U. Legeay, ' Histoire
de Louis XL' (Paris, 1874, II., p. 279), and Kervyn de Lettenhove,
'Histoire de Flandres' (Bruges, 1874, IV., p. 159). The ambassy was
headed by the Electors of Treves and Mayence, and among its members
were the Markgraves of Brandenburg and Baden, Duke Louis of Bavaria,
and others. The ambassadors were attended by George Hesler, the
Chancellor of the Empire, and by five or six hundred spearmen.

7 An exaggeration, if the ordinary German miles are meant. The
French, at the time, were certainly at Tournai, which they had occupied
on May 23, and which is no more than 12 German miles from Mechlin,
as the crow flies.

8 See his letter of October 13, 1477. Appendix II.