Nuremberg Chronicle

Artist Michael Wolgemut German, b. 1434/37 - 1519

Artist Wilhelm Pleydenwurff German, ca. 1460 - ca. 1494

Author Dr. Hartmann Schedel German, 1440 - 1514

Printer Anton Koberger German, ca. 1445 - 1513

Date1493

Place of OriginGermany

MediumHand-colored woodcuts and initials, moveable metal type-printed text, laid paper, leather binding

DimensionsOverall: 19 1/4 x 13 1/2 x 4 1/4 in. (48.9 x 34.3 x 10.8 cm)

ClassificationsBooks

Credit LineBequest of Charlotte Pruyn Hyde

Object number1971.110

On View

Not on view

InscribedNumerous handwritten marginalia in early handwriting, especially in the registrum or index.

DescriptionAn "encyclopedia" of world history and geography as known in the late fifteenth century. Latin language version.

Consists of 610 folio pages with 645 woodcut engravings. The text has hand-illuminated initials and cast metal type. The woodcut prints, many full page and several double pages, are hand-colored.

The text of the volume was assembled from many sources by Hartmann Schedel, the printer, Anton Koberger, hired the artist Michael Wolgemut who was helped by his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Albrect Durer studied with Wolgemut from 1486-1489, at about the time he received the commission for the Chronicle. Sebard Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister acted as the financial backing and thus as publishers.

The Chronicle was published in Latin first with a German version of the first edition following it a few months later, the latter printed in much smaller numbers.

See also Hyde Collection 1971.111 the Augsburg Chronicle/Liber Cronicarum which is a slightly later (1497) "pirated" edtion of the Nuremberg Chronicle, The Augsburg was intended to be a less expensive version of the Nuremberg and is smaller in overall size, with woodcuts having fewer figures. The paper is of lesser quality and it was not published in a colored version, although sellers of the book in the period did sometime have them colored to their own requirements.

The contents of the Chronicle are organised into the "Seven Ages of the world," with Schedel using a model of the six days it took for God to create the world with rest on the seventh day. Schedels seventh age is subtitled "Reporting the coming of the Antichrist at the end of the world and predicting the Last Judgement."Exhibition History"The Nuremberg Chronicle: A Quincentenary Celebration," Hoopes Gallery, The Hyde Collection, June 19 - Dec. 31, 1993.

"The Nuremberg Chronicle: Pages from History," Birdsall Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Sept. 18 - Dec. 7, 1998.

"A Passion for the Printed Word: The Book Collection of Louis Hyde," Hoopes Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Aug. 11 - Nov. 3, 2002.

"The Nuremberg Chronicle," Birdsall Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Dec. 16, 2005 - May 5, 2006.

"Worth A Thousand Words: The Art of Illustration from The Hyde Collection," Hoopes Gallery, The Hyde Collection, October 28, 2011 - Feb. 19, 2012.

"Making History: The Nuremberg and Augsburg Chronicles", Hoopes Gallery, The Hyde Collection, November 10, 2018-December 30, 2018

"Growing Up in a Renaissance Palazzo: Childhood in Italy 1400-1600," Charles R. Wood Gallery, The Hyde Collection, Oct. 5, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025.ProvenanceJean Schemit (dealer), Paris France, 1931; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Hyde, Glens Falls, NY, 1931; by bequest to The Hyde Collection, 1952.