In 1496 the "School for Poets" in Nuremberg was opened despite the resistance it met with. At the same time the young Albrecht DUrer made the acquaintance of the brilliant German humanist Konrad Celtis - events which had a direct effect on DUrer's artistic works.

The author assembles the details of art and cultural history like pieces of mosaic to form an overall context and comes to an astounding and convincing new interpretation of five early works by DUrer.