DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0108
88
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
getting his 200 florins, or at any rate he tried to appear so, and
wrote the following letter to the Niirnberg Council.
“Niirnberg, 27 April, 1519.
“ Prudent, honourable and wise, gracious, dear Lords. Your
honours are aware that, at the Diet lately holden by his Imperial
Roman Majesty, our most gracious lord of very praiseworthy memory,
I obtained a gracious assignment from his Imperial Majesty of 200
florins from the yearly payable town-contributions of Niirnberg. This
assignment was granted to me, after many applications and much
trouble, in return for the zealous work and labour, which, for a long
time previously, I had devoted to his Majesty. And he sent you order
and command to that effect, signed with his accustomed signature,
and quittance in all form, which quittance, duly sealed, is in my
hands.
“Now I rest humbly confident that your honours will graciously
remember me as your obedient burgher, who has employed much time
in the service and work of his Imperial Majesty, our most rightful Lord,
with but small recompense, and has thereby lost both profit and ad-
vantage in other ways. And therefore I trust that you will now deliver me
these 200 florins to his Imperial Majesty’s order and quittance, that
so I may receive a fitting reward and satisfaction for my care, pains,
and work—as, no doubt, was his Imperial Majesty’s intention.
“ But seeing that some Emperor or King might in the future claim
these 200 florins from your Honours, or might not be willing to spare
them, but might some day demand them back again from me, I am
therefore willing to relieve your Honours and the town of this chance,
by appointing and mortgaging, as security and pledge therefor, my
tenement1, situated at the corner under the Veste and which belonged
to my late father, that so your Honours may suffer neither prejudice nor
loss thereby. Thus am I ready to serve your Honours, my gracious
rulers and Lords.
“Your Wisdoms’ willing burgher,
“Albrecht Durer.”
About this time, Durer wrote an interesting letter “ to the
1 The house, in which Diirer was born, was a dark dwelling, just in the rear of the
house where Pirkheimer’s father lived, and forming part of it. When Diirer was
five years old his father moved to a house ‘under the Veste’ and there Diirer resided
till two years after his return from Venice. He paid a small head-rent for it, but this
he afterwards compounded. In 1509 he bought the corner house in the Zistelgasse
near the Thiergartner Thor—the house now known by his name. He paid 275
florins Rhenish for it. When Diirer the elder died, he only left Albrecht a share of
the house ‘under the Veste,’ and it was not till 1518 that he finally bought out his
brother Andreas and made the whole house his own. It is the house ‘under the
Veste’ that is referred to in the above letter.
durer’s literary remains.
[chap.
getting his 200 florins, or at any rate he tried to appear so, and
wrote the following letter to the Niirnberg Council.
“Niirnberg, 27 April, 1519.
“ Prudent, honourable and wise, gracious, dear Lords. Your
honours are aware that, at the Diet lately holden by his Imperial
Roman Majesty, our most gracious lord of very praiseworthy memory,
I obtained a gracious assignment from his Imperial Majesty of 200
florins from the yearly payable town-contributions of Niirnberg. This
assignment was granted to me, after many applications and much
trouble, in return for the zealous work and labour, which, for a long
time previously, I had devoted to his Majesty. And he sent you order
and command to that effect, signed with his accustomed signature,
and quittance in all form, which quittance, duly sealed, is in my
hands.
“Now I rest humbly confident that your honours will graciously
remember me as your obedient burgher, who has employed much time
in the service and work of his Imperial Majesty, our most rightful Lord,
with but small recompense, and has thereby lost both profit and ad-
vantage in other ways. And therefore I trust that you will now deliver me
these 200 florins to his Imperial Majesty’s order and quittance, that
so I may receive a fitting reward and satisfaction for my care, pains,
and work—as, no doubt, was his Imperial Majesty’s intention.
“ But seeing that some Emperor or King might in the future claim
these 200 florins from your Honours, or might not be willing to spare
them, but might some day demand them back again from me, I am
therefore willing to relieve your Honours and the town of this chance,
by appointing and mortgaging, as security and pledge therefor, my
tenement1, situated at the corner under the Veste and which belonged
to my late father, that so your Honours may suffer neither prejudice nor
loss thereby. Thus am I ready to serve your Honours, my gracious
rulers and Lords.
“Your Wisdoms’ willing burgher,
“Albrecht Durer.”
About this time, Durer wrote an interesting letter “ to the
1 The house, in which Diirer was born, was a dark dwelling, just in the rear of the
house where Pirkheimer’s father lived, and forming part of it. When Diirer was
five years old his father moved to a house ‘under the Veste’ and there Diirer resided
till two years after his return from Venice. He paid a small head-rent for it, but this
he afterwards compounded. In 1509 he bought the corner house in the Zistelgasse
near the Thiergartner Thor—the house now known by his name. He paid 275
florins Rhenish for it. When Diirer the elder died, he only left Albrecht a share of
the house ‘under the Veste,’ and it was not till 1518 that he finally bought out his
brother Andreas and made the whole house his own. It is the house ‘under the
Veste’ that is referred to in the above letter.