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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