The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493

Hartmann Schedel:

Liber chronicarum.

Nürnberg, Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 1493. Imperial folio. (46 x 33 cms.) With a total of 326 leaves: [20] incl. xylographic title + 300 + [6], the final sequence with an initial blank. Leaves 259-261 (CCLVIIII-CCLXI) were printed blank except for headlines. There are two colophons, on leaf 266r (June 4th, 1493) and on leaf 300v (”Anthonius Koberger Nuremberge impressit”, July 12, 1493).

A tall copy in modern full calf gilt, spine with raised bands, slight wear. Bookplate of Dano-Swedish collector Einar Hansen (1902-1994). Occasional old colouring of the woodcuts. Title-leaf defective, laid down and expertly restored with the xylographic printing largely preserved but retouched, initial 5 leaves of the preliminaries with marginal corner repairs and last leaf with mended tear into last 5 lines of text, lower outer corner of first 45 leaves or so finger-soiled and a little worn, marginal corner repairs to ff. 264-6, in one case a large repair in somewhat darker paper extending along part of lower margin (text and woodcuts unaffected in each case), short marginal tears and minor marginal wormtrails mended throughout. Just a few minor stains, text as a whole clean and fine with no loss, and margins unusually wide.

First edition, in Latin. A German edition appeared later in the same year.

The ”Nuremberg Chronicle” is the most extensively illustrated book of the Incunable era, a year-by-year account of notable events in world history from the creation to the year of publication, including references to contemporary events like the invention of printing at Mainz, the exploration of Africa, and a possible voyage in 1483 to America mentioned on leaf 290v. The impressive book includes 645 woodcuts by Pleydenwurff and Wohlgemuth repeated to a total of 1809 illustrations, some full-page, others double-page, including a Ptolemaic world map showing the Gulf of Guinea discovered by the Portuguese in 1470, and a map by Hieronymus Münzer of northern and central Europe including the British Isles, Iceland and Scandinavia. A prominent feature among the illustrations is the large series of 29 double-page town views. Finally, this copy includes on leaf 169v the famous portrait of ”Pope Joan” (”Joannes Septimus”), which has been removed or defaced in many copies.

It is possible, but remains unproven, that young Albrecht Dürer (b. 1471), a pupil of Wohlgemuth, may have contributed to the illustrations.

ISTC nr. is00307000.

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