Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/134

 122 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE was a keen observer. 1 The most gifted of his pupils in cosmography was Martin Waldseemtiller, of Freiburg, who published in 1507 an ' Introduction to the Study of Cosmography, with the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci,' with a dedication to the Emperor Maxi- milian. This was the first public appearance of the narrative of the Florentine traveller. Waldseemiiller gives descriptions in this work of the different maps which he had made of European countries, and remarks incidentally that for the later ones he had availed him- self of the works of Ptolemy, as well as of the observa- tions of navigators. 2 He also worked on the beautiful edition of Ptolemy published at Strasburg, and wrote two treatises on architecture and perspective, 3 which his teacher, Eeisch, embodied in the new edition of his encyclopaedia brought out in 1507. The University of Basle surpassed even that of Freiburg in intellectual activity, in fresh and vigorous life, and in the proficiency of its teachers. Up to the time of the Church schism Basle was the ' pleasantest abode of the muses.' 4 In the first decades of its exist- ence the most striking figure in the university was Johannes Heynlin of Stein, from the diocese of Spires, a man as conspicuous for his austere piety as for his vast learning, his eloquence, and industry. One of the last of the distinguished leaders of the medieval school of Realists, he was, nevertheless, behind few of his contem- 1 Alexander von Humboldt in Cosmos, ii. 286. 2 Peschel says in his Geschichte der Erdkunde their observations were as exact as those made now. 3 Alexander von Humboldt in Cosmos, i. 286. Kritische Unter- auchungen, pp. 358-371 ; Ghillany, vols, iv.-vi. ; Poscher. 4 We find Erasmus calling Strasburg ' The home of the muses ' in a letter written in 1516. Woltmann, i. 267.