Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/166

 154 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE soul this wise young king had ! He is an example to all future kings and princes.' Wimpheling writes of him to the same effect : ' Whatever tends to throw light on the history of the German people commands the entire sympathy of the king. He buries himself in old chronicles and his- torians ; he has their writings collected and published, and is in constant correspondence about them with all the most learned men. He is now consulting with the scholars of his neighbourhood with regard to publishing a popular book, under the title of " Picture Gallery of German Ancestors." ' Peutinger was engaged by him to prepare an exhaustive work on the emperors ; and he also prepared, as a basis for a history of the house of Hapsburg, a kind of register, in aid of which the Emperor not only had chronicles and histories sent over from far and near, but also himself instituted personal researches, and so brought on himself not unfrequently the criti- cisms of his learned and independent friend. Maximilian set his historians, Johann Stabius, Ladislaus Suntheim, and Jacob Manlius to explore a great part of Germany, Italy, and France in search of manuscripts. Aided by the generosity of Maximilian, Conrad Celtes, accompanied by the mathematician, Andreas Stiborius, travelled through Northern Germany with the object of compiling an historical, geographical, and statistical work. Wimpheling asserts that once, when hard up for money, Maximilian pawned a jewel which he prized highly in order to raise funds to make it possible to complete a scientific journey undertaken at his instigation. By imperial command Suntheim col- lected materials for a genealogical history of the house