[135] Schedel’s general description of the city of Vienna, which is
    equally brief and spirited, may deserve to be quoted.  “VIENNA autem
    urbs magnifica ambitu murorum cingitur duorum millium passuum:  habet
    fossa et vallo cincta:  urbs autem fossatum magnum habet:  undique
    aggerem prealtum:  menia deinde spissa et sublimia frequentesque
    turres; et propugnacula ad bellum prompta.  AEdes civium amplae et
    ornatae:  structura solida et firma, altae domorum facies magnificaeque
    visuntur.  Unum id dedecori est, quod tecta plerumque ligna contegunt
    pauca lateres.  Cetera edificia muro lapideo consistunt.  Pictae domus,
    et interius et exterius splendent.  Ingressus cuiusque domum in aedes te
    principis venisse putabis.” Ibid. This is not an exaggerated
    description.  A little below, Schedel says “there is a monastery,
    called St. Jerome, (much after the fashion of our Magdalen) in
    which reformed Prostitutes are kept; and where, day and night, they
    sing hymns in the Teutonic dialect.  If any of them are found relapsing
    into their former sinful ways, they are thrown headlong into the
    Danube.”  “But (adds he) they lead, on the contrary, a chaste and holy
    life.”

[136] I suspect that the houses opposite the Palace are of comparatively
    recent construction.  In Pfeffel’s Viva et Accurata Delineatio
    of the palaces and public buildings of Vienna, 1725 (oblong folio,)
    the palace faces a wide place or square.  Eighteen sculptured human
    figures, apparently of the size of life, there grace the topmost
    ballustrade in the copper-plate view of this truly magnificent
    residence.

[137] [Recently however the number of Restaurateurs has become
    considerable.]

[138] In Hartmann Schedel’s time, there appears to have been a very
    considerable traffic in wine at Vienna:  “It is incredible (says he)
    what a brisk trade is stirring in the article of wine,[139] in this
    city.  Twelve hundred horses are daily employed for the purposes of
    draught—­either for the wine drank at Vienna, or sent up the
    Danube—­against the stream—­with amazing labour and difficulty.  It is
    said that the wine cellars are frequently as deep below the earth,
    as the houses are above it.”  Schedel goes on to describe the general
    appearance of the streets, and the neatness of the interiors, of the
    houses:  adding, “that the windows are generally filled with stained
    glass, having iron-gratings without, where numerous birds sing in
    cages.  The winter (remarks he) sets in here very severely.” Chron. 
    Norimb. 1493, fol. xcix.