In these days of superstars you fight to read everything you can about the person of interest. In my opinion, Albrecht Durer WAS the quintessential superstar of Rennaisance Germany, and here are letters written in his own hand. Sometimes funny, but always interesting, you learn of the ways barter was used to pay off debts, how copies of his many fine works were spread throughout Germany and the accounting of each "stiver" spent of Willibald Pirckheimer's money (his benefactor). Even the fateful journey to Zeeland to see the corpse of a whale, which lead to his death, is chronicled here. When you think in terms of the current speed of information gathering--it's hard to believe we are talking about 1514 and not 1998.