1493 – H. Schedel – CLXX

Titles:           “CLXX”

Description:

A leaf from Hartmann Schedel’s Latin edition of the “Liber chronicarum,” published in Nuremberg in 1493, pairing Carolingian imperial history and two Anglo-Saxon royal portraits on the recto with three consecutive papal portraits on the verso.

Folio CLXX opens with the closing years of Emperor Lothair I (“Lotharius”), shown enthroned with orb and cross-staff as part of the Chronicle’s running “Linea imperatorum” (Line of Emperors). The text covers the succession war between Lothair and his half-brothers after the death of Louis the Pious, the bloody battle fought near Fontenoy, Norman raids into Aquitaine, and a striking run of omens — a comet, an earthquake in Italy, oversized hailstones, and six-winged locusts said to have blanketed Gaul like snow — illustrated with its own woodcut of hail and lightning bursting from the clouds. The lower register turns to Anglo-Saxon England: Æthelwulf (“Adeulphus rex”), father of Alfred the Great, credited here with making England tributary to Rome, and Edmund (“Eadimundus rex”), the East Anglian king martyred by the Danes, whose section closes with the well-known legend of the wolf that guarded his severed head.

The verso continues the papal history in portrait roundels under the parallel heading “Linea summorum pontificum” (Line of the Supreme Pontiffs): Benedict III, Nicholas I — one of the most assertive popes of the early medieval papacy, remembered for facing down Lothair II’s divorce and the schism with Constantinople — and the opening of Adrian II’s reign.

Page number: CLXX

Worth knowing about the book itself: almost none of the portraits are individual likenesses — the same “generic ruler” and “generic pope” woodblocks get recycled again and again throughout the Chronicle for whichever figure is being discussed. And the red-ink initials and headings are rubrication, added by hand after printing, which is typical for surviving copies.

The Nuremberg Chronicles was the first printed history of the known world with about 2000 woodcuts the most picturesque work of the early time of printing. It became one of the most popular books of the 15th. century. The woodblock cutters were Michael Wolgemut, teacher of Albrecht Dürer and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. The printing was carried out under the supervision of the great scholar-printer Anton Koberger.

Author:                    Hartmann Schedel (1440 – 1514)
Sheet size:              43,3 x 31,3 cm
Year:                         1493
Technique:            wood block

Condition:
In good condition.

 

This is an original antique map published in 1493 and NOT a modern copy or reprint

 

On your request I will provide a Certificate of Authenticity