Framed Leaf From The Nuremberg Chronicle. Schedel, Hartmann First Edition

Original leaf from the Nuremberg Chronicle, the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century. The dates on the leaf fall within the Sixth Age, covering late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The leaf narrates events concerning the popes of the period, beginning with Joannes Octavus (Pope John VIII, 872-882), Martinus Secundus (Pope Martin II), Adrianus Tertius (Pope Adrian III), and Stephanus Quintus (Pope Stephen V). It discusses their reigns and related historical events - political and religious turmoil, wars, and ecclesiastical matters of the late 9th century - reflecting how world history was understood from a biblical and papal perspective in the late 15th century. Illustrated with a vertical line of woodcut portraits of each Pope to the right of the leaf and with a group woodcut of a church council to the bottom left corner. Matted and framed. In fine condition. The entire piece measures 17.5 inches 22.25 inches. A beautiful presentation. Published in 1493, the monumental Nuremberg Chronicle remains the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century. Albrecht Durer, the printer Koberger's godson, is thought to have contributed to the celebrated series of c.1800 woodcuts while working for the workshop of Michael Wolgemut. The publication history of the Nuremberg Chronicle is perhaps the best documented of any book printed in this period: the contracts between Schedel and his partners Schreyer and Kammermaister, and between Schedel and the artists, all survive in the Nuremberg Stadtsbibliothek, as do detailed manuscript exemplars of both the Latin and the German editions (see A. Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle, Amsterdam: 1976). The Nuremberg Chronicle also includes two double-page maps: a world map (Shirley 19) based on Mela's Cosmographia (1482), and a map of northern and central Europe by Hieronymus Munzer (1437-1508) after Nicolas Khyrpffs. The world map is one of only three 15th-century maps showing Portuguese knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea of about 1470. The map of Europe is closely associated with Nicolas of Cusa's Eichstatt map, with which it is thought to share a common manuscript source of c. 1439-54. It is therefore claimed to be the first modern map of this region to appear in print. Although published later than the map of Germany in the 1482 Ulm Ptolemy, it was constructed earlier (Campbell, The Earliest Printed Maps, 1472-1500, 1987). BMC II, 437; Schreiber 5203; Goff S-307; ISTC is00307000. Hartmann Schedel was a medical doctor, humanist and book collector. He earned a doctorate in medicine in Padua in 1466, then settled in Nuremberg to practice medicine and collect books. According to an inventory done in 1498, Schedel's personal library contained 370 manuscripts and 670 printed books. He compiled this elaborate history of the world from â the first day of creationâ to his own time in an effort to correct what he felt was a slight to German history by other chroniclers. He divided his work into the usual six ages of the history of mankind, adding a seventh in which he foretold the coming of the Antichrist, the destruction of the world, and judgment day. The invention of printing is mentioned on verso of leaf CCLII: â born in Germany... in the city near the Rhine [i.e. Mainz]... in the year 1440â ; on verso of leaf CCXC is a brief account (not appearing in the subsequent German edition of the same year) of the â Portuguese voyage of discovery along the coast of Africa in 1483 [1484], under the direction of Diego Cam and Martin Behaim of Nuremberg, which has been used as a basis for the unwarranted theory that the expedition reached Americaâ (Sabin). The legacy of the volume rests on its illustrations. â There are 1809 woodcuts printed from 645 different blocks. They picture the major events of the Old and New Testaments, episodes in the lives of many saints, portraits of prophets, kings, popes, heroes, and great men of all centuries, fre