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[Registrum huius operis Libri cronicarum cu[m] figuris et ÿmagi[ni]bus ab inicio mu[n]di]
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| Title | [Registrum huius operis Libri cronicarum cu[m] figuris et ÿmagi[ni]bus ab inicio mu[n]di] |
| Detail Depicted | Printing - Page design (Leaf 1) |
| Uniform Title | Liber chronicarum |
| Creator/Author | hartmani Shedel [Schedel, Hartmann, 1440-1514. Liber chronicarum] |
| Publisher | Anthonius koberger [Koberger, Anton, ca. 1440-1513.] |
| Place of Publication | Nurembergensi [Germany - Nuremberg]; from first colophon (cclxvi)
Nuremberge; from second colophon (p. [2] at end): |
| Date of Publication | 1493 |
| Subjects (LCSH) | Chronology, Historical
World history -- Early works to 1800
Artists' illustrated books.?????
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| Genre Heading | Early printed books--1401-1500 (15th century)
Incunabula
Historical works
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| Bibliographic Elements | [20], CCLXVI, [5], CCLXVII-CCXCIX, [1 +] leaves : ill., maps, ports. ; 43 cm. (fol.) |
| Printing Method | Letterpress on handmade laid paper |
| Printer | Anton Koberger [Koberger, Anton, ca. 1440-1513] |
| Image Production Process | Woodcuts
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| Illustrator | [ Wolgemut, Michael, 1434-1519]
[Pleydenwurff, Wilhelm, d. 1494] |
| Binding | Conservation work was done by Donald Etherington in Greensboro, North Carolina in early 1989. A conservation binding replaced a deteriorated earlier binding probably from the late 17th or early 18th century. A binder's needle found in the book spine was probably accidentally left by the person who did the earlier binding.The volume was disbound and the signatures washed and the individual leaves dried between blotters. Spine folds were reapplied with Japanese paper using rice starch paste; large tears were repaired with Japanese paper and small tears with heat set tissue. The signatures were sewn on six double cords using Irish linen thread. The endbands were sewn using the German primary method of sewing. Boards were constructed of four layers of four-ply 100% rag beveled to accommodate swelling caused by the sewing. The spine was shaped only by fingers and bone folder; no hammer was used. The boards were then attached by lacing into slots cut into the boards; the full thickness of the cords was used. Endbands were also laced into the boards. The endpapers were constructed using the "flexi-end" style and were made using Gutenberg paper, as were the extra sheets that were added. The covering material is a tawed pigskin from Hewitt & Sons of England. The covering technique following the traditional method of covering, which is to only wrap the leather around the bands and tie up, not using the band nippers. The title was tooled on the spine using gold leaf. Binding process digital images at [http://www.lib.washington.edu/Preservation/sab1images.html] |
| General Notes | Signatures: unsigned gatherings; ff. [20] I-CCXCVI [5] CCLXVII-CCXCIX [1].
UW copy imperfect: first 6 leaves of first set of unnumbered pages, including half-title page and beginning of index wanting. Final three blank leaves of book following unnumbered leaf and colophon on its verso are wanting. Leaves lacking and replaced by blank leaves are [1-6], CCLVIIII-CCLIX, CCLXIIII, and CCXCVII-CCXCVIII.
The second unnumbered set of 5 leaves inserted between CCLXVI and CCLXVII is titled De Sarmacia regione Europe above a map and De regnopolonie et eius initio below the map, and it includes double-page maps of Casmirus/Cracovia, Lvbeca, and Nissa.
CCLXI has running title and foliation but no text.
Spaces planned for the insertion of illuminated initials left blank.
The title of the Nuremberg Chronicle is taken from the woodcut title on leaf [1a], lacking in UW copy, which reads: Registrum Huius operis Libri cronicarum cu[m] figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mu[n]di. Source: RLG Union Catalog record ID CASXAJQ0496-B.
The first colophon (CCLXVI) marks the completion of the work of H. Schedel: Completo in famosissima Nurembergensi vrbe Operi de hystorijs etatum mundi, ac descriptione vrbium felix imponitur finis. Collectum breui tempore Auxilio doctoris hartmani Schedel. qua fieri potuit diligentia. Anno xpi Millesimo quadringentesimo nonagesimotercio. die quarto mensis Junij...
Colophon (p. [2] at end):... Ad intuitu autem preces prouidoru[m] ciuiu[m] Sebaldi Schreyer Sebastiani kamermaister hunc librum dominus Anthonius koberger Nuremberge impressit. Adhibitis tame[n] viris mathematicis pingendiq[ue] arte peritissimis. Michaele wolgemut et wilhelmo Pleydenwurff. quaru[m] solerti acuratissimaq[ue] animadversione tum civitatum tum illustrium virorum figure inserte sunt. Consummatu[m] autem duodecima mensis Julij. Anno saltus nre 1493. The text after Schedel's colophon was supplied by well-traveled scholars such as the poet laureate Conrad Celtis; the doctor and book collector Hieronymus Münzer; Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomin, later Pope Pius II; and the navigator Martin Behaim.
The book became famous because of its illustrations, graphic design, printing, woodcuts, and descriptions of cities. It was one of the greatest works in graphic art in the 15th century.
The Liber Chronicarum was commissioned by two wealthy Nuremberg patrons, brothers-in-law Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermaister.
Michael Wohlgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff were well-known Nuremberg artists who were commissioned to make the illustrations, layouts, and woodcuts for the book. One of them always had to be on hand during the14-hour workdays for the two years of typesetting and printing to make sure there were no defects in the blocks, as per their contract. Albrecht Dürer the Younger, one of the greatest artists of the German Renaissance, trained in their workshop from 1486 to 1489 and some art historians have found similarities between selected illustrations and Dürer's later work.
Hartman Schedel supplied the text. According to Adrian Wilson's Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the Chronicle is partly an almost unaltered rewriting of Jacob Philip Foresti of Bergamo's Supplementum chronicarum. Shedel also copied from Jacobo Pergominsi and other historians.
Anton Koberger's publishing, printing, and bookselling house, the largest in Europe at the time and with agents in cities throughout the Continent, handled printing and distribution for the Chronicle. Probably 1500 Latin and 1000 German copies were printed in all.
In 1496 the Augsburg printer Johann Schönsperger pirated the work, publishing a German edition with illustrations copied from the Nuremberg woodblocks. It was in a small folio format, included a true title page, and sold at a lower price. This edition took over the market and ended Schreyer's plan for reprinting. A year later, Schönsperger issued a Latin edition. In none of his editions did he mention the author or translator. In the Nuremberg German edition only translator Georg Alt's name appeared, and some later bibliographers erroneously considered him the author of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Calligraphic Italian Rotunda typeface was used for the text, common for most Latin texts in the 15th century. Every full-width line contains an average of 100 characters and spaces. The type for running heads and for section titles is a larger Rotunda. The 2- and 3-line initials are Lombardic forms, battered by repeated use. Where captions appear within the immediate area of a block, they are cut in the wood. The precision of the work is remarkable in that the woodcutters were cutting in plank grain, not end grain blocks of wood.
The repetition of woodcuts was a common practice during this time, both in order to save money and because many readers accepted them as idealized images. According to Wilson (46) the Chronicle contains 1809 illustrations printed from 645 different blocks. An identical image is used to represent both the land of the Amazons and the city of Alexandra. The same city is also used in other parts of the book to represent Athens, Pavia, Austria, Carinthia, and Prussia. Ninety-six blocks of emperors, kings, and popes each were used an average of six times. Of the city views, Nuremberg is the only full double-page spread. Thirty-two images are among the first authentic views ever made of those cities. Twenty-one are imaginary cities, all single page images. Other woodblock repetition examples in the database for the Chronicle: leaves LXII & XXXIX verso, leaves LXXII, XL, & LIX.
The image of Rhodes (XXVI verso) copies an authentic view by Erhard Reuwich in Breydenbach's [Die heyligen reyssen gen Jherusalem zu dem heiligen grab] or Peregrinationes, also in UW Libraries holdings. In the Latin Exemplar or working model of the Chronicle, the sketch for the view of Rhodes is so explicit that it appears to have been compressed from Reuwich's block. In addition, the Venice image CIVITAS VENECIARV (XLIII verso & XLIV recto appears to have been taken from Reuwich's Peregrinationes image of Venice (map hinged to leaf xvi and also sewn into gathering).
Deterioration can be seen in repeated use of a woodblock by comparing image CXCIII verso with its 13th use on CCLIII. The imprint scar of the side of a piece of type appears and the edge of a piece of type or spacing material has cut through lines which emanate from a dove over the heads of the church dignitaries.
Upon Schedel's request, Koberger inserted three blank leaves at the end of the book so future book owners could continue to record the history of the world after 1493. He left blank spaces at the beginning of major sections of the text for illuminators to add artistic touches to individual copies.
SOURCES:
Nuremberg Chronicle: Chronicles
[http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/Exhibits/Nuremberg/Chronicles.html]
The Nuremberg Chronicle
[http://www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/dukemag/issues/050602/depgal2.html]
The Nuremberg Chronicle [http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/Exhibits/Nuremberg/Worldview.html]
The Nuremberg Chronicle: The Artists
[http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/Exhibits/Nuremberg/Artists.html]
UW Libraries: Save a book: The restoration.
[http://www.lib.washington.edu/Preservation/sab1images.html]
Wilson, Adrian. The making of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Amsterdam: Nico Israel, 1976,
1978.
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| Language | Latin |
| Digital Collection | Historical Book Arts Collection |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Special Collections |
| Call Number | uncataloged |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned in RGB color using an Olympus C-2000 Zoom digital camera and saved in.jpg format and resized to768x600 ppi. 2004. |
| Content | The Nuremberg Chronicle continues in a tradition of medieval chronicles which represent earthly history in six ages, from Creation to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to David, David to the Babylonian captivity, to the birth of Christ, and to the Day of Judgment. The author requested that three pages be included at the end for owners to add events of history that occurred after the book was printed.
The scope of the work includes both Church and secular history, classical antiquity, and medieval and contemporary events mixed with fables, myths, and legends. The Chronicle also covers important figures such as kings, clergy, and philosophers. |
| Restrictions/Copyright | Some of our items are fragile and may require an appointment for use. Please contact Special Collections. |
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