PETER VISCHER 
Peter Vischer’s second son and namesake, he 
reminds us, is mentioned pointedly by the chron- 
iclers in one passage’ as having done the greater 
part of the work on the Sebaldusgrab, “for he 
excelled his father and brother in art”; and in 
another? as having “taken his pleasure in reading 
the Poets and Historians, whence he then, with 
the aid of Pancratz Schwenter, extracted many 
beautiful poems and illuminated them. He was 
in all things not less accomplished and skilful than 
his aforesaid brother Hermann, and he too. died 
in his prime.” Now this young craftsman, it would 
appear, when the period of his “ wandering” was 
at hand, turned his feet, like his fellow-townsman 
Diirer before him, towards Lombardy, the Para- 
dise of all arts.” His imagination, doubtless, had 
already been fired by what he had seen of the 
North Italian Renaissance in the treasures brought 
to Nuremberg by merchants, travellers and artists. 
But the expenses of an Italian tour were beyond 
the resources of the Vischer household. Fortune 
and his father’s friends were kind to him; he was 
entrusted, probably through the influence of 
Sebald Schreyer, the historian and patron of art, 
with the task of “ travelling” the famous Sc/edel- 
Weltchronik, which had been published in 1492, 
with illustrations by Wolgemut and Pleydenwurft. 
Booksellers’ accounts enable us to trace the journey 
of the young craftsman. He passed through 
* Kunz Rosner. MS. 933 b, Library, Nuremberg. 
N eudorffer. 
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