Chapter I: Preface

I am painfully aware of the defects of this little book, and still more painfully unaware of its errors. The best excuse for the mistakes that have surely crept in is the vast scope and variety of my subject--the story of the old mediæval town which was for long the centre of German industry and thought. But, for a guide-book, accuracy is above all things desirable, and I shall therefore be deeply grateful to the courtesy of any of my readers, who, having discovered any error or omission, will kindly point it out to me.

The sources from which I have drawn are far too numerous to acknowledge in detail. But in the matter of topography and architecture a more express note of indebtedness is due to the devoted labours of R. von Rettberg, A. von Essenwein, and Ernst Mummenhoff. Above all, I must pay my tribute of gratitude and acknowledgment to the enthusiastic erudition of Dr Emil Reicke,[1] whose mighty volume, _Geschichte der Reichsstadt Nürnberg_, is a mine of information from which I have freely quarried. Lastly, to those old chroniclers at whom I have sometimes laughed, but whose quaint phrases and legends may have saved these pages from too serious a dulness, I now hasten to make amends and to assure them that I am very conscious of my own inferiority as a storyteller.

The object of this book will have been in great part achieved if it succeeds in reviving the memories and quickening the affections of old lovers of Nuremberg; if it awakens a desire in those who have not yet known and loved her, to visit the old "White City," and join the band of her worshippers.

CONTENTS

PAGE

_The Origin of Nuremberg_ 1

CHAPTER II

_The Development of Nuremberg_ 35

CHAPTER III

_Nuremberg and the Reformation_ 55

CHAPTER IV

_Nuremberg and the Thirty Years War_ 93

CHAPTER V

_The Castle and the Walls_ 114

CHAPTER VI

_The Council and the Council-House. Nuremberg Tortures_ 150

CHAPTER VII

_Albert Durer and the Arts and Crafts of Nuremberg_ 171

CHAPTER VIII

_Hans Sachs and the Meistersingers_ 215

CHAPTER IX

_The Churches of Nuremberg_ 225

CHAPTER X

_Old Houses, Bridges and Wells_ 267

CHAPTER XI

_German Museum_ 275

CHAPTER XII

_Arms of Nuremberg_ 289