Nuremberg Chronicle
Author | Hartmann Schedel |
---|---|
Original title | Liber Chronicarum |
Illustrator | Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff |
Language | Latin; German |
Subject | History of the world |
Genre | Universal history[1] |
Published | 1493, Anton Koberger |
Pages | 336 |
The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated
Latin scholars refer to it as the Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles) as this phrase appears in the index introduction of the Latin edition. English-speakers have long referred to it as the Nuremberg Chronicle after the city in which it was published. German-speakers refer to it as Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel's World History) in honour of its author.
Production
Two
The author of the text,
Nuremberg was one of the largest cities in the
Publication
Contents
The chronicle is an illustrated world history, in which the contents are divided into seven ages:
- First age: from creation to the Deluge
- Second age: up to the birth of Abraham
- Third age: up to King David
- Fourth age: up to the Babylonian captivity
- Fifth age: up to the birth of Jesus Christ
- Sixth age: up to the present time (the largest part)
- Seventh age: outlook on the end of the world and the Last Judgment
Illustrations
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2016) |
The large workshop of Michael Wolgemut, Nuremberg's leading artist in various media, provided the unprecedented 1,809 woodcut illustrations (before duplications are eliminated; see below). Sebastian Kammermeister and Sebald Schreyer financed the printing in a contract dated March 16, 1492, although preparations had been well under way for several years. Wolgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff were first commissioned to provide the illustrations in 1487–1488, and a further contract of December 29, 1491, commissioned manuscript layouts of the text and illustrations.
Albrecht Dürer was an apprentice with Wolgemut from 1486 to 1489, so may well have participated in designing some of the illustrations for the specialist craftsmen (called "formschneiders") who cut the blocks, onto which the design had been drawn, or a drawing glued. From 1490 to 1494 Dürer was travelling. A drawing by Wolgemut for the elaborate frontispiece, dated 1490, is in the British Museum. While some art experts may claim to be able to identify which Nuremberg Chronicle woodcuts may be attributed to Dürer, there is no consensus. Dürer was not yet using his monogram, and no artists in Wolgemut's studio signed their work in the Chronicle.
Illustrations depicted many never-before-illustrated major cities in Europe and the Near East.[10] Six hundred and forty-five original woodcuts were used for the illustrations.[11] As with other books of the period, many of the woodcuts, showing towns, battles or kings were used more than once in the book, with just the text labels changed. The book is large at 18 inches by 12 inches. Only the city of Nuremberg is given a double-page illustration with no text measuring about 342 × 500mm.[9] The illustration for the city of Venice is adapted from a much larger woodcut of 1486 by Erhard Reuwich in the first illustrated printed travel book, the Sanctae Perigrinationes of 1486. This and other sources were used where possible; where no information was available a number of stock images were used and reused up to eleven times. The view of Florence was adapted from an engraving by Francesco Rosselli.[12]
Pirated editions
Due to the success and prestige of the Nuremberg Chronicle, which had one of the largest print-runs of an edition during the incunabula (also known as the incunable period of book production c. 1455–1500), one of the first large-scale pirated editions of the Chronicle appeared on the market. The culprit was Johann Schönsperger (c. 1455–1521), a printer working out of Augsburg who produced smaller editions of the Chronicle in 1496, 1497, and 1500 in German, Latin, and a second edition also in German. It was the beginning of unauthorized book editions, pirated editions which capitalized on the success of another author and printer/publisher without consent.[13] Despite the pirating of a successful book, Schönsperger went bankrupt in 1507.
References
- ^ Biddick 2013, pp. 45–46.
- OCLC 1015350203.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link - ^ Biddick 2013, p. 45.
- ^ Cambridge Digital Library, University of Cambridge, http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00000-A-00007-00002-00888/1 Archived 2012-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Wilson, Adrian. The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Amsterdam: A. Asher & Co. 1976
- ^ Landau, David and Peter Parshall. The Renaissance Print, 1470–1550. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994
- ^ "About this book - Author" Archived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine, Beloit College Morse Library, 2003
- ^ "About this book - Latin and German Editions" Archived 2008-01-13 at the Wayback Machine, Beloit College Morse Library
- ^ ISBN 0-7141-2633-0
- ISBN 9781465483065.
- )
- ISBN 0-691-00326-2
- ^ "The Other Nuremberg Chronicle | THE GARGOYLE BULLETIN". Retrieved 2020-03-19.
Bibliography
- Biddick, Kathleen (2013). The Typological Imaginary: Circumcision, Technology, History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780812201277. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
External links
- Coloured Latin edition and First English Translation (and comparison) at Beloit College
- User:Schedel/gallery at wikicommons
- Un-coloured (B&W) German-language edition at Google Books
- Coloured German-language full edition online from the Duchess Anna Amalia Library
- Coloured Latin edition from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
- The full text of the original book published in 1493