Willibald Pirckheimer was one of the most important representatives of German Renaissance humanism. A scholar who worked in philosophy, history, geography, theology, philology, ethics, astronomy, and astrology--Emperor Maximilian praised him as the most learned doctor in the empire--he was, at the same time, not a man of the ivory tower. For almost twenty-five years he served the imperial city of Nuremberg as city councillor, diplomat, and military leader. He had an excellent command of Latin, knew Hebrew, and was responsible, together with Rudolf Agricola, Conrad Celtis, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Philipp Melanchthon, for introducing Greek studies into Germany. A pioneer of classical archaeology and philology, he was also keenly interested in the visual arts. He corresponded with all of the major figures of the European Renaissance, so that, as Lewis W. Spitz observes, a list of his correspondents reads like a dictionary of Renaissance scholars. His library...