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was troubled, at the same time, with claims for the payment
of debts incurred by him before his departure for
Portugal. His brother Stephen had paid, on February 13,

1489, the 168 gulden which, ever since 1484, he owed to
his uncle Leonhard Hirschvogel and to Niklas Schlewitzer,
and had to be indemnified.1

Other liabilities were disposed of on December 13,

1490, and February 2, 1491. On the former date Martin
was adjudged to pay Hermann Zwaypfund for 70 lbs. of
lidlons (nails ?), which had been supplied to him; on the
latter he paid off a bond debt of 48 gulden, which he
owed to Heinrich Zimmer, who had transferred it to
Catherine, the widow of Hans Behaim the stonemason,
and for which his brother Michael had become security.2

Behaim's Globe.

There were no doubt other transactions of a financial
or legal nature, of which no record has been preserved, but
we are pretty safe in assuming that the business which
had brought Martin Behaim to Nuremberg had been
satisfactorily settled by the end of August 1491. He
might therefore have departed for his distant island home
at once, but it pleased him to extend the duration of his
visit for another couple of years. It is to this extension
of his visit that we are indebted for the famous globe.
Behaim no doubt interested his fellow-townsmen by the
account he gave of his life in the far-off Azores and during
a voyage to Guinea. The merchants of the Imperial city
had their " Inn " or " fondaco " at Venice and were fairly
well acquainted with the trade of the Levant; numbers
among them had visited Egypt and the Holy Land,3 but
their knowledge of Portugal and of the African
discoveries made by the Portuguese was still somewhat
vague. But not only merchants and craftsmen, desirous
of discovering new fields for their enterprise, may be
supposed to have listened with interest to the tales of the
young traveller staying amongst them ; men of learning
are known to have done so likewise. We know at all
events that Hartmann Schedel, the author of the Chronicle,
accepted from him and printed an account of his voyage,
and that Dr. H. Miintzer or Monetarius furnished him
with a letter of recommendation to King John, which is
printed in the Appendix. Other " shining lights " of the
Nuremberg of those days—Bernhardt Walther (b. 1430,
d. 1504), the friend and pupil of Regiomontanus, whose
library he bought, Sebald Schreyer, the antiquary (see
p. 6), and the youthful astronomer Johann Werner
(b. 1468, d. 1528), and even visitors like Conrad Celtes or
Pickel (p. 2)—may be presumed to have had personal
intercourse with Martin Behaim, although his name is not
mentioned once in any of the;r published writings. Nor
* can it be doubted that Marti. Behaim was introduced to

1 See p. 10.

2 Lochner L, pp. 3, 13 ; Giinther, notes 88 and 89.

3 R. Rohricht, 'Deutsche Pilgerreisen.' New edition, Innsbruck,

1900.

the Emperor Maximilian, who arrived at Nuremberg on
March 15,1491, to preside over a Reichstag, gave two balls
to the Patricians in the Townhall on June 14 and 27, and
organised other festivities.4 It was probably on one of
these occasions that he said • Martino Bohemo nemo unus
imperii civium magis umquam peregrinator fuit, magisque
remotas orbis adivit regiones,'5 which was perfectly true
at the time when it is supposed to have been spoken.

It was, however, a member of the Town Council,
George Holzschuher,6 to whom Martin Behaim became
indebted for the greater part of the fame which he still
enjoys. George Holzschuher in 1470 had visited Egypt
and the Holy Land, and he evidently took some interest
in the progress of geographical discoveries. It was he who
suggested to his colleagues of the Rat that Behaim should
be requested to undertake the making of a globe, upon
which the recent discoveries of the Portuguese should be
delineated. His suggestion was accepted, and to him we
are indebted for the famous globe, a full account of which
I shall give in the second part of this work.

Martin Behaim's Family Relations.

But whatever popularity Martin Behaim may have
enjoyed among his fellow townsmen, he certainly does not
appear to have secured the affections of his own kith and
kin. We have already learnt that Martin, when first he
came to Nuremberg, became the guest of his cousin
Michael, the son of his uncle Leonhard. His reception,
at first, may have been cordial enough, but his prolonged
stay and idleness proved irksome in the end. This at
least we gather from two letters which his brother Wolf,
who was at the time at Lyon, wrote to his cousin
Michael. In the first of these letters,7 written on
November 22, 1491, Wolf says:—

" Moreover, you let me know that my brother Martin
is still at Nuremberg, and in your house, and that his
conduct is singular (seltzams wesen). I am sorry to hear
this. Here at Lyon they say things about him which
make me ashamed. I should be very glad if we were rid
of him altogether."

From a subsequent letter8 dated December 5, 1492,
we learn that " Martin does nothing in particular, but
goes daily into the garden, and only concerns himself
with the garden," adding that if he took such an interest
in plants he might at least set up as a dealer in herbs.
Ghillany suggests that the Nurembergers expected
Martin to work all day in a merchant's office, or took
offence at his gay southern dress. On this latter point,
however, we know nothing. Martin may not have worn

« Mummenhof, 'Mitt. d. Vereins f. d. Gesch. d. Stadt N.,' V., 1884,
p. 167.

8 See p. 40.

6 ' Biedermann Geschlechsregister,' Tafel 182. George was a member
of the town council from 1484—1514, and died 1526. (See also p. 1.)

7 Ghillany, p. 105.

8 Ghillany, p. 106 ; Giinther, p. 72.

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