Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/162

 150 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE sessed its own printing press, by means of which, as- well as by purchase and exchange, it amassed a valu- able library, containing many classical works. At the suggestion of the burgomaster, Sigismund Gossembrot, the zealous Humanist, Siegmund Meisterlein, a monk of that monastery, had written a history of Augsburg in the year 1456-1457, whichlater on, under the direction of the abbot Johann von Giltlingen, he had supple- mented by an ecclesiastical history of the city and of the monastery, in which he showed remarkable intelli- gence of research and originality of treatment. His manner of relating the things which came under his personal observation was particularly vivid. A literary society for the special purpose of historical research was formed in Augsburg among the clergy, the town councillors, and other citizens, and Peutinger was both its animating soul and most active member. At great labour and expense he founded a library which was specially distinguished for its valuable records of early German history. He was indefatigable in collecting manuscripts, coins, and other antiquities ; and he gathered together by degrees a collection, unique of its kind, of Eoman inscriptions found in the city and diocese of Augsburg. These inscriptions, the earliest materials for the history of Augsburg, were published by him in the year 1505, by order of Maximilian and with the assistance of the historical society. He brought out the following year, under the title ' Table- talk on the Antiquarian Wonders of Germany,' a work which gained him widespread literary renown. In the year 1507 appeared the first edition of ' Ligurinus,' an historical poem of the times of Frederick Barbarossa, and which Conrad Celtes found in the cloister of Erbach.