Liber chronicarum. 1st ed. of the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th c. The 2 editions (Latin and German) were planned simultaneously, each with its own specially designed, new type, and both with the same woodcuts; the Latin ed. preceded...
Estimation :
16000 / 25000
Adjudication :
33000 €
Description
the German by about 5 months. The text is a universal history of the Christian world from the beginning of times to the early 1490s, written in Latin by the Nürnberg physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), with on f. 252v the famous reference to the invention of printing in 1440. The Chronicle also incorporates geographical and historical information on European countries and towns. The narrative is divided into 11 parts, the so-called world ages. Illustration: xylographic title-page; 1809 woodcut ills printed from 645 blocks by Michael Wohlgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop, including Albrecht Dürer. The woodcuts show religious subjects from the Old and New Testament, classical and medieval history, and a large series of city views incl. Augsburg, Basel, Byzantium, Cologne, Florence, Jerusalem, Nürnberg, Prague, Rome, Venice, Vienna. Included are 2 double-page maps: a world map, folio XIII (Shirley 19) (splitting c'fold, c. 10 cm) based on Mela’s "Cosmographia" (1482), and a map of northern and central Europe (lower margin trimmed to woodcut border & strenghtened, c'fold splitting c. 7 cm) by Hieronymus Münzer (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 Eichstätt 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).
Decoration: 27 large red and blue initials in Index and on ff. 262, 267 and 268; 14-line gilt initial "C" with blue, red and green penwork on f. 1r. A few old marginal manuscript notes. Old ownership entries and collector’s stamps on title i.a. "Possessio Laurentij Andreae Smalandensis Hafniae 6. stuferis (?) Ano 1586". Old heraldic bookpl. on verso of title H. zur Mühlen.
Decoration: 27 large red and blue initials in Index and on ff. 262, 267 and 268; 14-line gilt initial "C" with blue, red and green penwork on f. 1r. A few old marginal manuscript notes. Old ownership entries and collector’s stamps on title i.a. "Possessio Laurentij Andreae Smalandensis Hafniae 6. stuferis (?) Ano 1586". Old heraldic bookpl. on verso of title H. zur Mühlen.
