Hartmann Shedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Peter Harrington Rare Books.

Описание: SCHEDEL, Hartmann, Liber chronicarum, Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 12 July 1493.

You can view this item on our website here: http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/rare...

Presented by Adam Douglas, Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington.

Imperial folio (444 x 310 mm), 325 leaves (of 326; without final blank). Contemporary German dyed-brown pigskin blind-tooled in a panel design with three frames filled with floral and scrollwork roll-tools, central panel with floral stamps; edges sprinkled blue, neatly mounted on later boards. Housed in a brown quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. 63 lines plus headline, Gothic letter, xylographic title-page, 645 woodcut illustrations by Pleydenwurff and Wohlgemuth repeated to a total of 1,809, some full-page, others double-page, including a double-page map of the world and double-page map of Europe. With the inscription on title of Johan Divel dated 1547 recording its gift from the estate of Herwart ? of the canons of St. Blasius in Brunschweig; small library stamp with crown and phrase “Karl ProPr” on title; posthumous bookplate of noted American bibliophile Robert S. Pirie laid in. Some contemporary sidenotes or captions identifying cities. Later spine worn, head and foot of spine chipped, corners mended; clean marginal tears mended in leaves 12, 56, & 291, small marginal smudges and spots, light browning within text block in leaves 172–182, 217, 250, dampstain in lower outer corner of last 16 leaves, a few tiny mends at lower edge of last leaf; overall, a very good copy.

First edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century, a universally acknowledged masterpiece of complex design. Compiled by the Nuremberg doctor, humanist and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514), the text is a year-by-year account of notable events in world history from the Creation to the year of publication, including the invention of printing at Mainz, the exploration of the Atlantic and of Africa, as well as references to the game of chess and to medical curiosities, including what is believed to be the first depiction of Siamese twins. The book is especially famed for its series of over 1,800 woodcuts depicting religious subjects from the Old and New Testaments, classical and medieval history, and a large series of city views (including Augsburg, Bamberg, Basel, Cologne, Nuremberg, Rome, Ulm and Vienna), as well as a double-page map of Europe including the British Isles, Iceland and Scandinavia, and a Ptolemaic world map apparently sourced from the frontispiece of Pomponius Mela’s Cosmographia (Venice, Ratdolt, 1488). The work was carefully planned, with manuscript Examplar volumes being made for both the Latin and the German text version that followed closely afterwards: the sketches in these confirm the active involvement in the project of the young Albrecht Dürer, then just completing his apprenticeship in Pleydenwurff and Wohlgemuth’s workshop. Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1976), approves Dr Peter Zahn’s count of probably 1,500 Latin copies printed.

Hartmann Shedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Peter Harrington Rare Books.    • Hartmann Shedel, The Nuremberg Chronicle, ...