Hartmann Schedel. Chronicle of the World – 1493 : Hartmann Schedel

Hartmann Schedel’s Weltchronik, or Chronicle of the World (better known today as the Nuremberg Chronicle, after the German city in which it was created), was a groundbreaking encyclopedic work and at the time the most lavishly illustrated book ever printed in Europe.

Both a historical reference work and a contemporary inventory of urban culture at the end of the 15th century, the Chronicle was to have a remarkable influence on the cultural, ecclesiastical and intellectual history of the Middle Ages. It was particularly notable for its vast quantity of woodcut illustrations (more than 1,800) depicting events from the Bible, human monstrosities, portraits of kings, queens, saints and martyrs, and allegorical pictures of miracles, as well as views of a great number of “”modern”” cities, many of which had never been documented before.

Today, copies of the Chronicle sell for up to 800,000 dollars; we’ve procured a rare hand-colored copy, true to the original in every respect, and created a complete facsimile of utmost quality. In case you don’t read Middle High German, the comprehensive annex, with summaries of the book’s main stories, provides a user-friendly way to explore this amazing historical masterpiece.