Lot 42
£30,000
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 22 September 2021 at 11:00 BST
Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12th July 1493. Folio (456 x 309mm.), illustrated with over 1800 woodblock prints by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, rebound in 18th or 19th century calf over ?original wooden boards, the binding worn; lacking 6 leaves including 1 Contents leaf ("El-Jula - Fredericus tercius"), folios 189, 259, 260 (259 & 260 mostly blank apart from page numeral and running title), 264 and 1 blank leaf at end, title-page trimmed and laid-down, 14 leaves with new lower margin and repaired in inner margin (folio 230 with some loss of woodcut), c. 17 additional leaves repaired in inner margin (folio 87 split with some loss of woodcut), c. 15 further leaves repaired in lower margin (folio 207 with tear extending into image, 226 verso affecting a few letters); folio 299 (map) repaired in inner margin and with corner supplied in manuscript facsimile; some light internal dampstaining and discolouration, a few minor wormholes not affecting text, neat repairs occasionally with slight loss to text, a few closed tears, a small amount of paint applied to a few images, folio 169 with one paragraph of text and image of a Pope erased by an early hand, some neat marginalia in an early hand, covers rubbed, joints split [USTC 748763; Goff S-307; HC *14508; Klebs 889.1; Oates 1026; Proctor 2084; BMC II, 437]
Provenance: Bookplate of S. Leigh Taylor [d.1891], bequeathed to him by his aunt Joanna Holdsworth [d.1869]; bequeathed by Samuel Leigh Taylor to his nephew, Russell Leigh Taylor; and thence by descent
Note: One of the most important German incunables, The Nuremberg Chronicle (as this work is commonly known) is the most richly illustrated printed book produced in the fifteenth century. The text is a universal history of the Christian world from the beginning of times to the early 1490s, written in Latin by the Nuremberg physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514) on commission from the Nuremberg merchants, Sebald Schreyer (1446-1520) and Sebastian Kammermeister (1446-1503). Drawn by the author from multiple medieval and Renaissance sources, such as Bede, Vincent of Beauvais, Martin of Tropau, Bartolomeo Platina, Flavius Blondus, and Philippus de Bergamo, the Chronicle also provides detailed information on the history and topography of European countries and towns. The narrative is divided into 11 parts, the so-called "world ages", and is profusely illustrated with images of biblical and historical events, alongside topographical views of towns and countries in Europe and the Middle East, including Jerusalem (and its destruction) and Byzantium.