St. Philip

1507–1528 · Virkested

Nuremberg

1525

Publishes the Four Books on Measurement

His Four Books on Measurement (Instructions for Measuring with Compass and Ruler) appeared in Nuremberg, the first book for adults on mathematics in German, later cited by Galileo and Kepler. Dürer wrote in the craftsmen's vernacular rather than in Latin.

early 1525

The trial of the “three godless painters”

Three of Dürer's pupils — the brothers Hans Sebald and Barthel Beham and Georg Pencz — were charged with godlessness and banished from Nuremberg, and one of his best block-cutters, Hieronymus Andreae, was jailed for links with the rebel peasants. How Dürer himself took it is unknown.

1527

A treatise on fortification

Dürer published Various Lessons on the Fortification of Cities, Castles and Localities, printed in Nuremberg, probably by Hieronymus Andreae.

6 April 1528

At work on his treatise on proportion to the end

In his last years, his health failing, Dürer devoted himself to his treatises on geometry, the proportions of men and horses, and fortification. He died in Nuremberg aged 56, leaving a considerable estate of 6,874 florins; the Four Books on Human Proportion appeared shortly after his death.

6. april 1528

Died