TOMB OF ELECTOR FREDERICK
we have no concern, anxious to secure the services
of a cannon-founder. It was suggested that the
young Peter Vischer should go to Prussia to act
in this capacity. But he was not destined to do
so. The Duke’sagent reports unfavourably. “He
1s too delicate a craftsman,” he says, “and has no
experience in casting large pieces.” It would
have made little difference, in fact, if he had
gone, for he died in this same year—the year in
which Nuremberg lost also her prince of draughts-
men— Albert Diirer.
The documents which refer to this matter of
the Duke Albrecht are to be found in the State
Archives at Konigsberg, and were first quoted by
Dobner,! who writes as follows :
“ Duke Albrecht of Prussia had corresponded
in January, 1528, with a citizen of ‘Nuremberg
named Bastian Startz, who was to procure a
cannon-founder for him from that city.” Startz
wrote to him from there on May 30, 1528, in very
illiterate German, to the effect that “ Jorg Clingen-
beck has had dealings with one who professes to
be a Puxsengeisser. Clingenbeck and I could not
subsequently discover that he had ever in his life
cast any large pieces, but only monuments and
statuettes, and on that account your Highness is
hereby advised that he is too delicate a craftsman.
And this Puxsenmeister is called by the name of
Petter Vischer.”
~ ‘ Peter-Vischer-Studien.” A. W. Débner
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