 is perhaps the best documented of any book printed in the fifteenth century, owing to the survival of the contract between the printer Anton Koberger (ca. 1445–1513) and his financial partners Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, the contract between Koberger and the artists, and the surviving manuscript exemplars. 

 (1471–1528), godson of Koberger, was apprenticed to Michael Wolgemut from 1486–1489, during the period Wolgemut's shop was busy creating the woodcuts for this volume.

Documents in the Stadtbibliothek Nürnberg reveal that 

 was not the sole author. A surviving Latin manuscript template shows the handwriting of seven contributors, with Schedel supplying the largest portion. As the 

 draws on a wide variety of sources, in some cases adapted verbatim, it is perhaps more appropriate to refer to Schedel and his co-writers as compilers rather than authors. 

The double-page world map titled ‘Secunda Etas Mundi’ (the Second Age of the World) is a detailed woodcut derived from Ptolemaic projections. Published only months after Christopher Columbus’ return from the West Indies, this map can be considered one of the last pre-Columbian world maps. Seven vignettes to the left of the map and a further fourteen on its reverse feature marvellous beings described by Pliny the Elder that were thought to inhabit the furthermost parts of the earth. Among these are a six-armed man ('gegenees'), a centaur, a four-eyed man from a coastal tribe in Ethiopia, a dog-headed man ('cynocephalus') from the Simien Mountains, a cyclops, a man with a single giant foot ('sciapod'), a man with a huge lower lip, a man with ears hanging down to his waist ('panotti'), and other startling and fanciful creatures.

Geographically, the map is very similar to the small map added to a new edition of 

 in 1482 (see SC-TM-1482-Mela-PWorldMap). Ratdolt was known to have settled in Augsburg after 1486, explaining the availability of his map in Germany. Generally, the map follows the orthodox belief of a landlocked Indian Ocean with a distorted but clear depiction of the lands of the Far East.

The world map is widely regarded as the work of Nuremberg physician and humanist Hieronymous Münzer (1437–1508), who also contributed to the book's text. Münzer, a doctor, humanist, traveller, and polymath, contributed to many of the geographical sections within the volume. He was also a friend of Martin Behaim, the maker of the world’s oldest globe.

Stylistically, Münzer’s map emulates Ratdolt’s 1482 edition in its simplicity, with few features in the interior. This draws particular attention to the great rivers of the world such as the Nile in Egypt and the Volga and Ural, both discharging into the Caspian Sea. This clarity is a marked departure from its predecessors published in Ulm in 1482 and 1486 (see SC-TM-1482-Anon-PWorldMap and SC-TM-1486-Reger-PWorldMap). The major innovation on Münzer’s map is the inclusion of Portuguese discoveries on the west coast of Africa, accounting for the much longer coastline of the continent in comparison to previous Ptolemaic maps. In addition, this map also has a large unidentified island off the west of the continent, perhaps referencing Alvise Cadamosto’s discovery of the Cape Verde Islands in 1456.

’s chronicle has appeared under various names but is generally referred to as the ‘Nuremburg 

’ in English and the ‘Schedelsche Weltchronik’ in German. Though Schedel does give special focus to Nuremburg and German history, a subject he felt was neglected in contemporary chronicles, the ‘Nuremburg 

’ is in fact a history of the world modelled after a longstanding medieval genre. Schedel’s work, however, would far surpass previous chronicles with its ambitious, lavish decoration.

Stretching from the dawn of creation to the date of publication, its historical narrative follows previous medieval chronicles such as the ‘Rudimentum Novitiorum’ (see SC-B-1475-Anon-Rudimentum-WorldMap) in which world events are interwoven with digressions about natural catastrophes, wars, reports of the founding of cities, and other local matters. It is structured into six ages of man (following the Biblical analogy to the six days of creation), with a brief seventh age that details the coming of the Antichrist and the Last Judgement as foretold in the Book of Revelations. Events occurring in other parts of the world are inserted parallel to the biblical stories. Following this, somewhat unsystematically, are descriptions of various towns with particular emphasis on the most important cities of Germany and the Western world. 

In many cases the 

 features the first known illustrations of the cities in question, along with the story of their foundation, the etymology of their names, and a painstaking list of facts about cultural life, economy, and trades flourishing there in the period around 1490. The work contains an astounding 1,809 woodcut illustrations from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut. Only 645 printing blocks were used, however, and a number of portraits and city views, are repeated several times. Two double-sided maps are also included: a map of the world and a map of Europe. Published only a year after Columbus’s first western voyage, America is not yet shown on the world map.


This magnificent world chronicle was produced in Nuremberg by 

, and is thus often referred to as 'The Nuremberg 

'. It is a history of the known world from a European perspective, with particular emphasis on Germany. With an astounding 1,809 woodcuts, the publication is highlighted by 31 double-page city views, some of which represent the first authentic depiction of a city panorama. Two double-sided maps of the world and Europe are also included and feature profiles of marvellous creatures believed to inhabit the ends of the Earth. Created in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut, the woodcuts may have been designed in part by a young 

 who was completing his apprenticeship at the time in Wolgemut’s studio.

' was published the year that Christopher Columbus returned to Europe after reaching the West Indies, although no mention is made of his expedition. On the verso of folio CCLXXXV is a passage relating to the ‘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 America’.

Ptolemaic world map

God Enthroned/God's heavenly chorus

The third and fourth days of creation

The fifth and sixth days of creation

The Universe

Creation of Eve/ Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

The First Family

Family tree of Adam

Noah's Ark

Noah's drunkeness/ Family Tree

City of Jerusalem

City of Nineveh

Linage of Laban/ Sodom & Gomorrha

Sacrifice of Isaac/ City of Trier in Germany

City of Damascus 

Illustration of the City and Island of Rhodes/ Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Lacedaemonia/ Job

Moses and the Burning Bush/ Balaam

Moses receiving the 10 Commandments/ Crossing of the Red Sea/ Idol of the Golden Calf 

Tablets of the laws/ Lineage of Christ/ City of Tiberias

The Sibyls/ The City of Troy

City of Paris

City of Mainz/ Eurystheus and Alete/ Lineage of Christ continued

Lineage of the judges: Samson, Eli, Samuel, Elkanah, Peninnah, and Hannah/ City of Naples

City of Venice

City of Padua

City of Pisa/ England

The Judgement of Solomon/ Solomon's Temple

Hebrew Prophets/ City of Jericho/ Ascension of Elijah

City of Treviso/ Lineage of Christ continued

City of Rome

Lineage of Christ conitnued/ 7 sages of Greece/ City of Marseilles

Babylonian Kings/ City of Byzantium/ The capturing of Zedekiah

Destruction of Jerusalem

City of Toulouse/ City of Insubres

The Maccabees/ City of Mantua

City of Florence

City of Cologne

City of Augsburg

City of Regensburg

City of Vienna

City of Nuremberg

Martyrdom of James the Lesser/ Martyrdom of Peter/ Martyrdom of Paul/ Seneca/ Marytrdom of Apostle Philip

Martyrdom of Apostle Simon/ Martyrdom of Apostle Matthias/ St Luke/ Mary Magdelene

Bishops of Athens/ City of Tibur

City of Constantinople

City of Buda

City of Strausbourg

City of Salzburg

City of Erfurt

City of Würtzburg

City of Bamberg

City of Magdeburg

The Electors of the Holy Roman Empire

Herealdry of the German Electoral College

City of Ulm

City of Passau

City of Prague

City of Breslau

City of Constance

City of Basel

Death and the End of Things

The Last Judgement and the End of the World

God's reward above, end of the World below

Events in Germany under Emperor Frederick III

Wallachia

Thrace

The Turks

The Seige of Constantinople

Macedonia

Austria

Lithuania

Hesse/ Franconia 

France

Spain/ Portugal

Map of Central Europe

Europe region of Samartia/ Poland 

Krakow 

Lübeck

Neisse

A pristine first edition of Schedel's famous chronicle, with exceptional hand-colouring throughout, heightened in gold, in an early sixteenth-century binding with a prestigious and sustained provenance.

17th century blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled oak boards, decorated in a panel design, with roll-tools of clover, ropework, heads with leafy sprays, four thistle stamps at corners of central panel, stamped armorial supralibros in central panel of upper cover, stamped arabesque on lower cover, later manuscript title on spine, remains of clasps and catches, all edges red; preserved in a modern half tan calf clamshell box.

Large folio. Latin text. Gothic types: 9:165 (headings), 15:110b (text), 64 lines and headline, table and parts of text double column, rubricated throughout; 645 woodcut illustrations by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (d1494) and Michael Wohlgemut (1434-1519), and their workshop including the young 

, repeated to a total of 1809, including a double-page map of the World (Shirley 19) and of Europe by Hieronymus Münzer after Nicolas Khrypffs, 29 double-page town views, and 8 full-page cuts, all woodcuts magnificently coloured in full and heightened in gold in an early hand.

The Book of Chronicles 

Liber Chronicarum 

Hartmann Schedel's 'Nuremberg Chronicle' 

A Record of this Work, the Book of Chronicles, with Figures and Pictures from the Beginning of the World

Registrum Huius Operis Libri Chonicarum cum Figuris et Ymagibus ab Inicio Mundi