"[Nuremberg Chronicle]",

Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum) was published in two editions, Latin and German, both in 1493, appearing in print just before Christopher Columbus' discoveries completely re-shaped the European view of the World. This splendid work presented the history of the world in a pictorial encyclopedia with approximately 285 pages of text and 1,800 woodcut illustrations. Among these illustrations are views of towns and cities throughout Europe and the Near East. The majority of these views are entirely imaginary. In fact, 49 of the views are actually printed from the same group of 14 woodblocks. There are also 30 double-page views of cities with more realistic images. In addition to the topographical images, there are an enormous number of other subjects, including diagrams of the Creation, comets, family trees, portraits & biblical scenes. The text was compiled and edited by Hartmann Schedel, printed by Anton Koberger, with illustrations designed by Michael Wohlgemuth and Willem Pleydenwurff, who cut the woodblocks, probably with the assistance of their apprentice, Albrecht Durer.

This calligraphic woodcut is the title page of the Index, not the book itself. It was common at this early point in printing for books not to have a title page. It reads Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum cum figuris et ymaginibus ab inicio mundi (Index of this work, the Book of Chronicles, with illustrations and portraits from the beginning of the world). According to Adrian Wilson, the scribe was probably Georg Alt. Latin scholars refer to this incredible incunabulum as the Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles), in English it has long been called the Nuremberg Chronicle after the city in which it was published, and German speakers refer to it as Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World History) in honour of its author. This is one of the rarest of all the leaves in the Chronicle.

References: Wilson p. 69.

Condition: C+

This leaf has been remargined all around with late 18th century paper and there are manuscript Latin notations, in brown ink, along with the name of a monastery in margins. There is a filled worm track in the flourish at bottom.