Name: Rolewinck’s World Chronicle with T-O Map
Author: Werner Rolewinck

In 1474, printer Arnold Ther Hoernen of Cologne, Germany issued the first dated printed edition of the 'Fasciculus Temporum'. During the fifteenth century there were thirty-three different printed editions including translations into French, German, and Dutch, making it one of the bestsellers in print of the fifteenth century and undoubtedly the best-selling printed book of the fifteenth century by a living author. 

While earlier editions of Rolewinck’s chronicle contained diagrams, this edition by Ratdolt with a printing date of 28 May 1484 instead includes a woodcut map of the world. The map is modelled after the traditional medieval T-O map, but his map does not name the three dividing waterways normally comprising the 'T'. The focal point is the city of Jerusalem ('Civitas Hierusalem'), which is prominently set in the middle of the map. 

The graphic also includes precise information on the subdivision of Asia (in twenty-seven parts), Europe (fifteen parts), and Africa (thirty parts). Above the T-O map is a diagram of the heavens and the days of creation. To the left, a woodcut panel depicts the Creation: featuring God in a mandorla of clouds surrounded by angels floating above a globe surrounded by a rippling sea, with the Sun and the Moon jointly hovering on the horizon. Collectively, the woodcuts provide an encompassing expression of time and space in Christian cosmology. 

Within the book, many of the woodcuts are earthly views of built environments of European cities. Especially notable is the printed double view of England, which is among the earliest depiction of the British Isles. Another remarkable image is what is likely the first known printed view of Venice, showing gondolas and gondoliers in the Grand Canal and the Piazza San Marco, which bears similarities to the earliest known drawing of Venice attributed to Niccolo da Poggibonsi (a mid-fourteenth century monk). Other woodcuts include images of: Rome, Verona, Jerusalem, Toledo, Noah’s Ark, the Tower of Babel, and the Temple of Solomon.

The Sunderland Collection

While stunning maps on Ptolemaic projections were being steadily produced in the late-fifteenth century, simple T-O maps remained a popular illustration in contemporary texts. This example from Werner Rolewinck’s highly successful world chronicle entitled 'Fasciculus Temporum' ('Bundles of Time') is an especially engaging example. The work was published by the pioneering German printer Erhard Ratdolt, and features diagrams and illustrative woodcuts throughout in fine original hand colouring.

The T-O map presents the earth divided into three parts, each labelled within the map’s outer circle. Jerusalem ('Civitas Hierusalem') is shown at the centre, Europe to the left and Africa on the right. In this version, the three continents are associated with the names of the sons of Noah, who were responsible for populating them, Shem (Asia), Ham, or Cham (Africa), and Japhet (Europe). Above the map is a diagram of heaven and a woodcut of the Creation, collectively expressing a comprehensive Christian cosmology.

The 'Fasciculus Temporum' ('Bundles of Time') was first printed in 1474 in Rolewinck’s hometown of Cologne. It presents both ecclesiastical and secular world history - from Genesis to 1475 - during the reigns of Pope Sixtus IV and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. His schema, a series of linear charts better suited to printing as a scroll rather than in book form, was so complicated that the first printing attempt was a failure. To accommodate Rolewinck’s ambitious work, the publisher Erhard Ratdolt pioneered a page design that could succinctly ponder the importance of each historical episode within the larger narrative of Christian history. Each page was divided between biblical and ecclesiastical history in the upper half and secular history below. To delineate between these two histories, Ratdolt used a horizontal woodcut strip with inset circles containing the names and biographical details - starting with Adam - of important characters from the Old Testament, popes, and saints. Immediately above the inset is the date of the event from the creation of the world, 'Anno Mundi', determined to be 5199 BCE, and below the inset and printed upside down, the number of years before or after the birth of Christ.

The 'Fasciculus Temporum' was an instant success and bestseller: more than thirty editions were published over the next century including translations into French, German, and Dutch. It greatly influenced Hartmann Schedel's 'Liber Chronicarum' (1493), the now better-known 'Nuremberg Chronicle', which it preceded by two whole decades.

T-O map

Illuminated letter

Timeline

Timeline and Noah's Ark

Timeline and Tower of Babel

Timeline and city views

Religious illustration

Timeline and city view

City view

Lineage diagram

A very rare example of Rolewinck’s world chronicle by the publishing pioneer Erhard Ratdolt, featuring woodcuts coloured throughout in a fine contemporary hand.