Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

St. Catherine in commemoration of his father, after which
he was sent to a schoolmaster at Bamberg to learn
German and commercial arithmetic,1 for his relatives were
ashamed that so old a " boy " should not have acquired
these accomplishments in his youth. It was intended
eventually to establish him in the Netherlands or at
Lisbon as a " factor," - or commercial agent. But when
his Portuguese relatives were made acquainted with this
project, they most strongly objected to his being sent to
Lisbon, saying that it would disgrace them, as Martin's
father had been a highly esteemed (hochgehalten) gentleman
and a knight.3 Jorg Pock, who, of course, was not in
sympathy with these narrow views, nevertheless objected
to his being sent to Lisbon, as his friends there would
most certainly try to live upon him, and as the trade of
Lisbon was moreover going down, whilst that of Seville
was rapidly increasing. He suggested that it might on
these grounds be better to provide for him in Castile.

1 Pock, December 1519 (Ghillany, p. 117).

1 A" factor " is the agent of a firm established abroad and commissioned
to buy and sell goods on its behalf. He receives no salary, but a
commission in lieu thereof.

3 Behaim's letter of December 16, 1518, and Pock's of March 27, 1520
(Ghillany, pp. 113, 118). In 1434 King Ferdinand had prohibited
knights, priests and men of position to engage in business, so as not to
injure the merchants. Fernao Lopez, ' Chronicle do Re Ferdinand I.
(' Meditos de historia Portuguese,' IV., 127).

Return to Portugal.

But even before the arrival of Jorg Pock's letter of
March 27, 1520, which conveyed the earnest protest of
Martin's Lisbon friends, the fate of the young man had
been decided. He had evidently disappointed the
expectations of his uncles, and having secured a second
letter from the Senate of the same tenor as the first,
except that no reference was made to the homicide, and
dated May 12, 1520,4 he was sent back to his aunt. His
stay at Nuremberg had therefore not exceeded a year.
Whether the letter he carried away with him helped him
to an appointment in the King's household history doth
not tell. With him the Portuguese line of the Behaims
seems to have died out. Ernesto do Canto (' Archivo dos
Acores,' VII., p. 401) knew of no descendants of his in the
Azores.

The German line, however, survives to the present
day, and the gloomy forebodings of Michael Behaim have
not yet been realised.5

Flokeant in perpetuum !

4 For a translation of this letter see Appendix XII., p. 115.

5 The Nuremberg branch of the family is at present represented by
Friedrich, Freiherr von Behaim (b. 1854), senior familiae, a bachelor, his
younger brother, Wilhelm (b. 1857), the father.of four children—three
daughters and one boy (b. 1891).