Liber Chronicarum (The Nuremberg Chronicle)
Hartmann Schedel, compiler
Michael Wolgemut, woodcut illustrations
Anton Koberger, printer
1493 CE, Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Germany)
Letterpress Printing, woodblock printed images, 15th-century pigskin binding
Over 1,800 images, made from over 600 woodcuts, illustrate this fifteenth-century understanding of the world. Promoting a European history, images of humanoid beasts saturate the pages about Asia and Africa. But the Western history is dubitable too— included in the list of Popes seen here is “Pope Joan.” Allegedly, Joan was a ninth-century woman who dressed as a man, was elected Pope, and was exposed when she gave birth. A previous owner intentionally defaced this page, disagreeing with Joan’s inclusion. Depicted as a holy mother, when motherhood ended her religious role, Joan is rendered in a blend of fable and fact to create history.
Jackie Streker
View a digitized copy of this book (with hand-colored illustrations) at the Münchener DigitalisierungZentrum
View a digitized copy of the German-language edition at the Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum
CLII–CLIII
CLXIX–CLXX