In this extented version of the Durer Art & Life Book, Preface as thoroughly versed in all matters connected with Durer and his art, acting as the author's friend, and so to say his representative, has been kind enough to read through the proof-sheets of the translation, and make some very valuable suggestions and amendments.All the illustrations contained in the German edition, including the initial letters and tail-pieces, have been inserted, and a few others added. Especial care has been taken to render the Index worthy of so important a work. In addition to the General Index, a special one has been prepared in which, under separate headings, will be found lists of all Dürer's pictures, water-colours, drawings, engravings, woodcuts, writings, and miscellaneous productions described or referred to in the course of the following pages.No exhaustive and critical account of the life and works of Albert Durer has hitherto been placed before the English reading public.The works of Mr. W. B. Scott and Mrs. Heaton, the latter of whom has lately published a second edition of her book, afford, indeed, useful and popular summaries of the results attained by German research, but do not pretend to examine the career of the great artist from an independent point of view, or to add anything to the student's knowledge of the subject.Germany, as was only natural, has always taken the lead in rescuing from oblivion or obscurity all that could throw light on the life and career of one of her greatest sons, and in assigning to him his high and well-deserved position among the most famous masters of pictorial art. Notwithstanding, however, all that had been done by various students and writers, among whom should be especially mentioned Herr A. von Eye, who published his important work, Leben A. Durers, in 1860, it was reserved for Dr. Thausing to treat the subject in such a manner as practically to leave little more to be said about it, either in respect of fact or theory.Endowed with the " God-given diligence " of his hero, Dr. Thausing, whose position of Keeper of the Albertina at Vienna afforded him exceptional opportunities for the task, has not only carefully examined the valuable collection Durer's works immediately under his care, but also those contained in every known public and private collection, comparing and analysing them with profound care, and with the acutest critical insight, assigning to each its chronological order, its value as a work of art, and the meaning which its author intended it to express. He has further collated every existing original document bearing upon the history of Diirer, his family, his native place, his friends and companions, and his immediate cotemporaries.