To the Honourable and wise Wilibald Pirkheimer, in
Nuremberg.
My dear Master, To you and all yours, many happy good New
Years. My willing service to you, dear Herr Pirkheimer. Know
that I am in good health; may God send you better even than
that. Now as to what you commissioned me, namely, to buy a
few pearls and precious stones, you must know that I can
find nothing good enough or worth the money: everything is
snapped up by the Germans.
Those who go about on the Riva always expect four times the
value for anything, for they are the falsest knaves that
live there. No one expects to get an honest service of them.
For that reason some good people warned me to be on my guard
against them. They told me that they cheat both man and
beast, and that you could buy better things for less money
at Frankfort than at Venice.
As for the books which I was to order for you, Imhof has
already seen to it, but if you are in need of anything else,
let me know, and I shall do it for you with all zeal. And
would to God that I could do you some real good service. I
should gladly accomplish it, since I know how much you do
for me.
And I beg of you be patient with my debt, for I think
oftener of it than you do. As soon as God helps me to get
home I will pay you honourably, with many thanks; for I have
to paint a picture for the Germans, for which they are
giving me 110 Rhenish gulden, which will not cost me as much
as five. I shall have finished laying and scraping the
ground-work in eight days, then I shall at once begin to
paint, and if God will, it shall be in its place for the
altar a month after Easter.
[Editor note: This refers to the [altarpiece called the]
"Madonna of the Rose Garlands," painted for the chapel of S.
Bartolommeo, the burial-place of the German colony. About
the year 1600 it was bought for a high price by the Emperor
Rudolf II, who is said to have had it carried [over the
Alps] by four men all the way to Prague to avoid the risk of
damage in transport. [It suffered serious water damage
during the Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648, and many parts of
it had to be repainted to replace much of the original paint
that was lost, but] it still remains one of the most
important [and lavishly colored] of all Dürer's works.]
The money I hope, if God will, to put by; and from that I
will pay you: for I think that I need not send my mother and
wife any money at present; I left 10 florins with my mother
when I came away; she has since got 9 or 10 florins by
selling works of art. Dratzieher has paid her 12 florins,
and I have sent her 9 florins by Sebastian Imhof, of which
she has to pay Pfinzing and Gartner 7 florins for rent. I
gave my wife 12 florins and she got 13 more at Frankfort,
making all together 25 florins, so I don't think she will be
in any need, and if she does want anything, her brother will
have to help her, until I come home, when I will repay him
honourably. Herewith let me commend myself to you.
Given at Venice on the day of the Holy Three Kings
(Epiphany), the year 1506. Greet for me Stephen Paumgartner
and my other good friends who ask after me.
--Albrecht Dürer