Melencolia I is a 1514 engraving by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. The print's central subject is an enigmatic and gloomy winged female figure thought to be a personification of melancholia. Holding her head in her hand, she stares past the busy scene in front of her – very much like some cachers. The area is strewn with symbols and tools associated with craft and carpentry, including an hourglass, weighing scales, a hand plane, a claw hammer, a saw and other objects related to alchemy, geometry or numerology, but no GPS!!! Behind the figure is a structure with an embedded magic square, and a ladder leading beyond the frame. The sky contains a rainbow, a comet or planet, and a bat-like creature bearing the text that has become the print's title.
I started to get crazy with the magic square to determine the coordinates of the 1514 cache. The two bottom center squares are 15 and 14 so I was excited. My work got too complicated for this cache so I quit. But, do keep this magic square in mind when you find the cache.
Durer’s Melancholia I is one of three large prints of 1513-14 known as his Meisterstiche (Master Engravings). The other two are Knight, Death, and the Devil and Saint Jerome in His Study. Again, I started to incorporate these three prints into some sort of puzzle. You can look them up to see I had some great opportunities there, but my mind again got overloaded quickly. So, I’m just giving you the coordinates out right.
N 35*14.822, W 089*46.266. The container is a traditional ammo box hidden in a routine spot not far off the road. There is a church next door to the lot where the cache is located so be respectful if you park on their lot while you search. Please do not park there on Sunday or specifically whenever there are services being held.