Hartmann SCHEDEL. Liber chronicarum. Registrum huius operi - Lot 21

Hartmann SCHEDEL. Liber chronicarum. Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum cu figuris et ymagibus ab inicio mudi. Nuremberg, Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, July 12, 1493. Large folio, brown basane with rebacked 7-rib spine (old binding restored). Baer, 65 // Brunet, I-1860 // British Museum, II-7449 // Hain, IV-14508 / BN, II-557 /// (20f.)-CCXCIX-(1f.)-(5f.) First edition of this famous work, better known as the Nuremberg Chronicle. Text in Latin, printed in full-page Gothic script, except for the first 20 leaves, which are printed in 2 columns. Hartmann Schedel, a German physician who died in Nuremberg at the end of the 15th century, was the author of a number of medical works that have now been completely forgotten. He remains famous, however, for the chronicle he wrote, which covers the period from the creation of the world to the year 1492. This work que can be consulted by on for information on the 15th century (Larousse). This handsome incunabulum is much sought-after for its numerous woodcuts in the text, some full-page and some double-page, by Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Michael Wohlgemut, Albrecht Dürer's master. They illustrate early history, with episodes from the Old and New Testaments and the Acts of the Apostles, as well as modern times, with depictions of the major cities of the time: Paris, Rome, Geneva, Milan, Mainz, Augsburg, Basel, Cologne, Krakow... The five unnumbered leaves devoted to Poland, which are sometimes found in the body of the work, are here bound in fine. Some old handwritten notes. Binding restored, spine redone. First leaf in facsimile, second leaf soiled, stained and restored in the margin; minor wetness in the margins of many leaves, heavier in the last 20 leaves, affecting the text, the last 5 leaves restored with loss of text or engraving; brown stains to 9 leaves and repaired tears to 5.