Hartman Schedel (1440 – 1514). German physician, humanist and historian.

From 1456 Schedel studied at the university of Leipzig and in Padua from 1463. In 1466 he came back to Nuremberg, from 1470 until 77 he worked as a physician in Nördlingen, then in Amberg, and from 1482 he lived in Nuremberg again. Hartmann Schedel, who was a wealthy and influential citizen of Nuremberg, became popular mainly as an author and editor of the „Nuremberg Chronicle“, published in a Latin and German edition in Nuremberg 1493. The woodcut-illustrations of the chronicle, at all more than 1800, were made in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519) and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (1460-1494) from 1487. Maybe some were also created by Albrecht Dürer, who completed an apprenticeship with Wolgemut between 1486 and 1490.

Nuremberg Chronicle or Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles)

The Nuremberg Chronicle, written and edited by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), is an richly illustrated world history that follows the story of human history related in the Bible, it includes the histories of a number of important Western cities. Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German translation by Georg Alt, it appeared in 1493, printed and published by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg. It is one of the best-documented early printed books - an incunabulum - and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text. Many of the 18 large-sized town-views belong to or even are the first authentic views of these cities ever published. The two large maps included - a world map and a map of central Europe -, are still made in the style of Claudius Ptolemy.

In the following we can offer you some original full pages or even double-pages from the Nuremberg Chronicle, Latin and German edition, published in 1493: