Once I know that you are aware of my devotion to your
service, there is no need to write about it; but so much the
more necessary is it for me to tell you of the great delight
it gives me to hear of the high honour and fame that you
have attained to by your manly wisdom and learned skill.
This is the more to be wondered at, for seldom or never can
the like be found in a young body; but it comes to you by
the special grace of God, as it does to me. How pleased we
both feel when we think well of ourselves, I with my
picture, and you con vostra [with your] learning! When
anyone praises us we hold up our head and believe him, yet
perhaps he is only some false flatterer who is making fun of
us, so don't credit anyone who praises you, for you have no
notion how unmannerly you are.
I can readily portray you to myself standing before the
Margrave and making pretty speeches. You carry on just as
though you were making love to the Rosentaler girl, cringing
so.
It did not escape me, when you wrote the last letter, you
were full of amorous thoughts. You ought to be ashamed of
yourself, for making yourself out so good looking when you
are so old. Your flirting is like a big shaggy dog playing
with a little kitten. If you were only as nice and sleek as
I am, I might understand it; but when I get to be a
burgomaster I will shame you with the Luginsland [Editor's
note: this was a Nuremberg prison], as you do the pious
Zamener and me. I will have you shut up there for once with
the Rechenmeister, Rosentaler, Gartner, Schlitz, and Por
girls, and many others whom for shortness I will not name.
They must deal with you. They ask after me more than after
you, however, for you yourself write that both girls and
ladies ask after me--that is a sign of my virtue! But if God
brings me home again safely, I do not know how I shall get
along with you with your great wisdom: but I `m glad on
account of your virtue and good nature; and your dogs will
be the better for it, for you will not beat them lame any
more. But if you are so highly respected at home, you will
not dare to be seen speaking with a poor painter in the
streets, it would be a great disgrace, con poltrone di
pintore.
Oh, dear Herr Pirkheimer, this very minute, while I was
writing to you in good humour, the fire alarm sounded and
six houses over by Peter Pender's are burned, and woolen
cloth of mine, for which I paid only yesterday 8 ducats, is
burned; so I too am in trouble. There are often fire alarms
here.
As for your plea that I should come home quickly, I will
come just as soon as I can; but I must first gain money for
my expenses. I have paid out about 100 ducats for colours
and other things, and I have ordered two carpets which I
shall pay for tomorrow; but I could not get them cheaply. I
will pack them up with my linen.
As for your previous comment that I should come home soon or
else you would give my wife a "washing," you are not
permitted to do so, since you would ride her to death.
Know, too, that I decided to learn dancing and went twice to
the school, for which I had to pay the master a ducat. No
one could get me to go there again. To learn dancing, I
should have had to pay away all that I have earned, and at
the end I should have known nothing about it.
As for the glass, the messenger Farber will bring it to you.
I cannot find out anywhere that they are printing any new
Greek books. I will pack up a ream of your paper for you. I
thought Keppler had more like it; but I have not been able
to get the feathers you wanted, and so I bought white ones
instead. If I find the green ones, I will buy some and bring
them with me.
Stephen Paumgartner has written to me to buy him fifty
Carnelian beads for a rosary. I have ordered them, but they
are dear. I could not get any larger ones, and shall send
them to him by the next messenger.
As to your question as to when I shall come home, I tell
you, so that my lords may make their arrangements, that I
shall have finished here in ten days. After that I should
like to travel to Bologna to learn the secrets of the art of
perspective, which a man there is willing to teach me. I
should stay there about eight or ten days and then come back
to Venice; after that I should come with the next messenger.
How I shall freeze after this sun! Here I am a gentleman, at
home a parasite. Let me know how old Dame Kormer behaves as
a bride, and that you will not grudge her to me. There are
many things about which I should like to write to you, but I
shall soon be with you.
Given at Venice about the 14th day after Michaelmas, 1506.
--Albrecht Dürer
P.S. When will you let me know whether any of your children
have died? You also wrote me once that Joseph Rummel had
married ----z's daughter, and forgot to mention whose. How
should I know what you mean? If I only had my cloth back! I
am afraid my mantle has been burned too. That would drive me
crazy. I seem doomed to bad luck; not more than three weeks
ago a man ran away who owed me 8 ducats.
PART II: DIARY OF A JOURNEY THE NETHERLANDS (July, 1520-
July, 1521)