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° (468 x 313 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 55/1-55/5 bound in at end, 56/1r supplements to the Sixth Age and description of Europe, 61/1v map of Germany, 61/4v colophon, 61/5-6 blank). 326 leaves (of 328; without two final blanks, 55/1-55/5 bound in at end), 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. WOODCUTS WITH EARLY HAND-COLORING, 2- and 3-line printed Lombard initials. 7- to 14-line initial spaces, 24 hand-colored initials, Text of Pope Joan (CLXVIIv) censured (subsequently washed and now legible). (Title with margins renewed, first 30 leaves and a few others with repaired tear, leaf “XXXVI” with lower margin repaired, leaf "CCXVIII” with blank corner repaired, CCLXII with blank lower margin repaired, some minor marginal worming at end, world map and ff XXXIv-XXXIIIv, LXVI, LXVII uncolored.) 16th-century blind-tooled German pigskin over beveled wooden boards; 2 brass clasps (one clasp renewed, upper spine end repaired, some rubbing). Provenance : Ludwig Hartmann (1603-1673) Stadtschreiber of Lucerne (“eques auratus,” bought for 3 florins on 9 October 1659, note pasted on Xylographic title); Werthenstein, Convent (“Nunc pertinet ad Conventum Werdensteinensem. 1744”); Lucerne, Switzerland, City Library (sale notice dated 1854 paste on Xylographic title); Librairie de Th. Belin (with his description? pasted to front free endpaper). FIRST EDITION, of the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th 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, see Paul Needham William Morris and the art of the book (1976). BMC II, 437; CIBN S-163; Goff S-309; H 14510*; A. Wilson The making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (Amsterdam 1976).