We have already spoken (p. 266) of the admirable achievements of the gold- and silversmiths. We may add that the engravers on copper sprang from this class: Albrecht Diirer himself, the most famous of the old engravers, began his artistic career as a goldsmith. Coppersmiths are mentioned in Augsburg in 1363, in Nuremberg in 1386. In the latter city wire-makers and brass-beaters occur in 1321, tinsmiths in 1328, and needle-makers in 137o.
We have already noted (p. 47) that the arts of casting metals and of alloying copper with tin had descended from pagan times; in the early Middle Ages, too, these arts were extensively practised. The bronze doors of the cathedral at Hildesheim, cast by order of Bishop Bern ward in 10(5, are the first, as they also rank among the most import ant, specimens of the application of these arts. In the year 1339 the brass-founder Hugo of Nuremberg was summoned to Augsburg to cast a bell of forty hundredweight. The great foundry of Peter Vischer, who prided himself upon being a simple mechanic, has won a name in tl history of art. Heavy ordnance was cast in both Nurembero-and\nos • o burg as early as the fourteenth century. Figures i and 2 (pl. 43) ex hibit the exercise of two of the trades of metal-workers in the sixteenth century.
less famous than the metal-workers were the building craftsmen. The carpenters were first united in a guild in 1368. The first association of stone-masons was formed in England. In Germany the masons organized in 1459 at Ratisbon an association called the Pan Itiitte, to include all the members of the craft in the empire. It received from Maximilian I. many privileges, especially the right of judicature, which was exercised in the cathedral at Strassburg under the presidency of the master of the order. It is unnecessary to speak of the merits of these artisans; they are chronicled in the splendid church edifices of the Middle Ages. Carpentry since the fifteenth century almost deserves a place among the fine arts on account of the splendid specimens of its pro ductions in houses and churches.
Potters and all the arts pertaining to the construction and furnishing of houses, that of the potters is the most ancient. The Germans learned it from the Romans, whose influence, to judge from discoveries lately made at Pestlin, extended to the far East, and whose style prevailed unchanged as late as the fourteenth century. We have already spoken (p. 266) of the potteries of later centuries. The art of turning (fig. I) reached an astonishing degree of excellence during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The workmanship of the Zick family of Nuremberg in that line has never been surpassed.
Glaziers practised their trade for domestic use in Augsburg in 1363, and in Nuremberg in 1373. Mirrors were still for a long time made of
metal. Glass mirrors even as late as the seventeenth century were quite rude, globular in form, and accordingly presented only distorted images. In 1685 a Frenchman, Abraham Thevart, invented the process of casting glass, which led to the production of flat mirrors; but the art of coating with amalgam had been previously known to the Venetians.
regard to the manufacture of dress materials, it is known from a document of the year 959 that weavers were introduced into Flanders from Germany. In Nuremberg we find wool-beaters and cloth-shearers as early as 1285, lace- and ribbon-makers in 1343, and velvet-makers, etc. in 1443. The wealth and prominence of the Fugger family of Augsburg show how lucrative must have been the linen man ufacture. Printing ou cloth had been practised for a long time previous to the invention of printing on paper.
The tailors formed a distinct trade after women had ceased making clothing at their homes. A tailors' guild was in existence at Helmstedt in 1244, at Nuremberg in 1316, at Zittau in 135o, and at Augsburg in 136S. At an early date the tailors were divided into separate classes according as they turned their attention to the manufacture of men's or women's garments; and at the same time with them appear the embroid erers (pl. 43, jig. 3) in silk, feather-decorators, button-makers, clasp makers, etc. Tanners and furriers are mentioned in Augsburg in the thir teenth century. The parchment-makers, whose uninterrupted activity since the days of the Romans is evidenced by manuscripts belonging to every century, also organized themselves in guilds. We may here men tion that generally several, sometimes dissimilar, trades were united in a single guild, and that even the fine arts, such as painting and sculp ture, were considered trades and were associated with them in Ogler Industrial Arts and Trades concerned the preparation of food, such as those of bakers, brewers, butchers, millers, etc.; these all reached importance at an early period: next to them came the classes that min istered to intellectual or spiritual needs, as the makers of rosaries and writing implements (the latter being usually carried at the belt), bell- and lute-makers, card-painters, pattern-makers, missal-illuminators, and rep resentatives of many other arts, some of which have been lost. Even in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the compass-makers of and Augsburg produced excellent mathematical instruments. It was one of these, the astrolabe, that made the discovery of America possible. This instrument had been derived from the Arabians, improved by Regio montanus, and taken to Portugal by a Nuremberger who became the Por tuguese admiral Martin Behaim.