Beschreibung:

SCHEDEL, Hartmann (1440-1514). Liber chronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12th July 1493.
SCHEDEL, Hartmann (1440-1514). Liber chronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12th July 1493. Imperial 2 o (422 x 293 mm). Collation: [1-2 6 3 8 ; 4 6 5-7 4 8-11 6 12 2 13 4 14-16 6 17 2 18-19 6 20-25 4 26-29 6 30 2 31 6 32 4 33-35 6 36 2 37 4 38-61 6 ]. (1/1r xylographic title, 1/1v blank, 1/2r index; 4/1r Creation-Ultimate Age of the World, 54/6v blank, 55/1r Sarmation supplement, 55/5v verse on the exploits of Maximilian, 55/6 blank (55 6 bound in at end), 56/1r supplements to the Sixth Age and description of Europe, 61/3v-4r map of Germany, 61/4v colophon, 61/5-6 blank). 326 leaves (of 328; without blank 61/5-6), ff. CCLVIIII-CCLXI left blank except for printed headlines for readers' manuscript supplements. 64 lines and headline, table and parts of text double column. Gothic types: 9:165 (headings), 15:110b (text). 1809 woodcut illustrations from 645 blocks (Cockerell's count) by Michael Wolgemut Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop, including the young Albrecht Dürer; the illustrations include 29 double-page town views, 8 full-page cuts and double-page maps of the World [Shirley 19] and of Europe by Hieronymus Münzer after Nicolas Khrypffs. 2- and 3-line printed Lombard initials. 7- to 14-line initial spaces. First text page (4/1r) with large illuminated initial in blue with white tracery and lighter blue modelling on a burnished gold ground (some minor chipping) within square red, green and yellow frame, the ground with incised floral tracery. Rubrication: divided initial opening index in red and blue, remaining initials of index in red; paragraph marks and capital strokes in red. (Approximately 20 leaves with tears or marginal repairs, touching a few running titles or foliation, light browning and staining.) 20th-century morocco, tooled in blind and spine lettered in gilt. Provenance : D. Millin (bookplate). FIRST EDITION of the Nuremberg Chronicle, a history of the world compiled by physician Hartmann Schedel with the assistance of Conrad Celtis and Hieronymus Münzer, and the most extensively illustrated book of the fifteenth century. The publication history of the Nuremberg Chronicle is perhaps the best documented of any book printed in the 15th century, owing to the survival of the contract between Koberger and his financial partners Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, the contract between Koberger and the artists, and the manuscript exemplars of both the Latin and German editions (see A. Wilson The making of the Nuremberg Chronicle 1976). Albrecht Dürer godson of Koberger, was apprenticed to Wolgemut from 1486-89, exactly during the period Wolgemut's shop was busy creating the woodcuts for this volume. For Cockerell's analysis of a copy owned by William Morris and his now traditional count of the woodcuts, cf. P. Needham William Morris and the art of the book (1976). BMC II, 437; BSB-Ink. S-195; CIBN S-161; Goff S-307; HC *14508; Schreiber 5203.