PETER VISCHER 
and offered the railing to them to adorn the 
Rathaus. On July 15, 1530, the Council bought 
it as it was, paying six gulden per hundredweight 
for it. 
The railing, still incomplete, was allowed to 
lie neglected in the cellars of the Rathaus for 
some years. But at last it was finished and 
erected. For when the Council heard on good 
authority that Count Otto Heinrich of the Palati- 
nate was anxious to secure it in order to adorn 
his castle at Neuburg therewith, they were afraid 
lest if they did not put it to some immediate use 
they might be forced into the position of having 
no excuse for not making a present of it to that 
powerful nobleman. They therefore hastily com- 
missioned Hans Vischer, “the Bronze-founder,” 
to complete the work—for a quarter of it still re- 
mained uncast—and to set it up in the Rathaus. 
This, accordingly, he did, and erected it on the 
19th of April, 1540, twenty-seven years after the 
Fugger family had first ordered it for their chapel. 
[t was used for the purpose of dividing the 
western portion of the great Hall, where the Court 
of Justice held its sessions, from the rest of the 
room. The total cost of the work amounted to 
2,796 gulden. But so admirable did the Council 
find it that they actually made a present of one 
hundred and fifty gulden to the craftsman in 
addition to the price named, as a token of their 
pleasure and satisfaction. 
Unfortunately, the history of the misadventures 
112