Sexta etas mundi. Page from Liber Chronicarum [The Nuremberg Chronicle] fol. CCLVI

This is a page from Hartmann Schedel's Chronicle of the World, known as The Nuremberg Chronicle, published in 1493. It was then the most famous 15th-century printed book in Europe after Gutenberg's Bible. It was commissioned by two Nuremberg aristocrats, Sebald Schreyer and Sebastien Kammermeister. To illustrate Schedel's text, which was the history of the world from the first day of creation until 1493, the patrons contracted the workshop run by Michael Wolgemut (1433/34-1519) and Wilelm Pleydenwurff (d. 1494). Wolgemut was Nuremberg's principal painter and printmaker of the late 15th century and also the young Albrecht Dürer's teacher, and Pleydenwurff was his stepson and partner.

Schedel (1440-1514) was a wealthy Nuremberg landowner and humanist, while the printer and publisher, Anton Koberger, the owner of the largest printing, publishing and bookselling house in Europe (he was also Dürer's godfather and early patron). The Nuremberg Chronicle was a massive publishing project with 645 woodblocks and total of 1809 woodcuts, a large run of 1000 copies in the Latin edition and 1500 in the German edition; it was widely marketed throughout Europe and sold very well.

On the recto (facing page) of this page (fol. CCLVI/256), we see a Latin text in letterpress with a woodcut illustration of a male pilgrim or monk carrying a staff and filling his water jug at a spring. A church in surrounding landscape is behind him. On the verso (reverse), the Latin text chronicles history at the time of the 'sixth stage of the world', i.e. mid to later 15th century, as indicated in the Latin title. There are woodcut portraits of  Anthonius Rafellus, Doctor of Law, probably a Nuremberg notable of the time, and John Paleologos to represent Mehmed II. It is possible that this portrait was used because of the illustrator's laziness, believing the Byzantine Emperor could stand in for his adversary!

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art           March 2017