Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

hospital, as J. Pock was told by one of the executors of
Arnold (Reynold) Nies, to whom Martin at the time of
his death owed 15 cruzados, and who was therefore likely
to be well informed on the matter.1 Of the causes of his
poverty we know nothing definite. Dr. Giinther (Note
139) suggests that after the death of King John, in 1495,
he lost the favour of King Manuel because he had taken a
prominent share in transactions which would have cost
Manuel his crown, as reported by Peter Martyr. But this
industrious letter-writer, although he refers in his ' Opus
epistolarum' to the disputes between King and Queen
concerning D. Jorge, does not once mention the name of
Behaim in connection with this question or in any other
instance. It is far more reasonable to suppose that the
large fortune which he had derived from Nuremberg had
been dissipated by him in idle speculations, and that after
the death of his father-in-law, in 1495, his family left him
to his own resources.

I believe that he died in the Hospital de todos os
Santos, of which the foundations had been laid by King
John in 1492 in the Garden of the Monastery of the
Dominicans, and close to their church in which he was
buried. A chapel within that church had been granted in
1422 to the German and Flemish brotherhood of the
Holy Cross and St. Andrew, a brotherhood which looked
after its members in sickness, and saw to their decent
burial.

Memorials at Nnre?nberg.

But whilst Martin Behaim's grave at Lisbon was soon
forgotten, and can no longer be traced, his son in 1519,
whilst at Nuremberg, placed a more permanent memorial
in the church of St. Catherine. A trefoil hatchment
(Scutum trifohum) in the quire, to the right of the altar,
exhibited in the centre the coat of arms of the Behaims,
and on the left what Murr took for the coat of arms of
the Macedos, but which was really that of the Hurters.2

The inscription was as follows :

1507, Pfintztag . nach Jacoby 29, 1507, on Thursday after Jacobi
Juli . Starb . der . gestreng . vnd . July 29th 3 there died the worshipped
. her . Martin Beheim . Bitter . ful and valiant Herr Martin
im . Kynckreich . zw . Portugal. dent. Beheim, knight in the kingdom of
gott . Onedig . sey. Portugal. May God have mercy

upon him.

A sexagonal iron chandelier, suspended in the very
centre of the quire, above the tomb of Konrad of
Neumarkt, served as a further memorial. It is in two
shelves. Upon the lower shelf are several groups of rocks,
upon one of which was placed a recumbent figure of
St. Catherine, whilst chaplets occupied the spaces between

1 This creditor Nies is repeatedly referred to in the correspondence
between J. Pock and Michael Behaim. See Ghillany, documents No.
XVI., XVII. and XVIII., pp. 112, 113 and 114.

4 Murr (p. 122) describes it thus: Field argent charged with three
pellets (roundels) table, charged with stars or. See pp. 48, 49.

3 Thursday after Jacobi, 1506, corresponds to July 30 !

the others. Below were two shields ; the one containing
the arms of Martin Behaim together with those of his
parents and grandparents, represented by the families of
S chopper, Hirschvogel and Muffel; the other, those of
his wife Johanna de Macedo, with the words, " Desiderans
desideraui ore " (grieving I desired to pray). The hoop or
ring bore this inscription : " Serenissimi Portugalie Regis,
Martinus Beheimus, miles auratus, Affricanos Mauros
fortiter debellauit, et ultra finem Orbis terre uxorauit"
(Martin Behaim, knight of the most serene King of
Portugal, stoutly fought the African Moors, and married
beyond the ends of this earth).4

Similar coats of arms were placed beneath the upper
shelf, and at their sides were statuettes of Martin Behaim
and his wife, and the inscription : "In memoria eius."
Along the upper hoop we read, " Joanna Capitanei
Portugaliae Regni filia, insularum Azorum Catheridum,
domini Flandrie nouae. Uxor Domini Martini Bohemi
Militis Foelix memoria," i.e., Johanna, daughter of a
Captain of the Kingdom of Portugal, the lord of New
Flanders of the islands of the Azores or Catherides,5 wife
of the lord Martin Behaim, knight, of happy memory.

Hatchment and chandelier were removed from the
church at the beginning of last century. It has been
stated that they had been removed to the Germanic
Museum, but I failed to discover them there.

The Monument of Behaim at Nuremberg.

A more permanent and public memorial in honour of
Martin Behaim was unveiled at Nuremberg on September
17, 1890. It consists of a bronze statue modelled by
Professor Rossner. The " Navigator " is represented clad
in armour, with a globe by his side and allegorical figures
of Science and Commerce sitting at his feet. On the day
mentioned a procession, more germanico, proceeded from
the town-hall to Behaim's house of birth, where the choral
societies sang a cantata written by Hans Barth and
composed by the gifted Franz Lachner,0 after which it
moved to the Egydienberg, where Dr Giinther, standing
at the foot of the monument, delivered the " Festrede."

There exists also a medal struck on the occasion of the
celebration of the tercentenary of Albert Diirer's death in
1828. It was engraved by Anton Paul Dallinger
(b. 1772). On its obverse it has portrait busts of Diirer
and Behaim, and the words " His gaudet nobis alumnis."

The reverse shows a seated figure of Norunbergia,
with emblems of arts, science and industry, and the words
" Hae tibi erunt artes."

Of Martin Behaim it certainly cannot be said what has
been said of certain prophets, that he had no honour in
his own country.

* Add : " as known to Ptolemy ! "

5 Catherides is a corruption of Cassiterides, the tin islands at one
time identified with the Azores.

6 He was born at Rain in 1804, and died on January 20, 1890.

\