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THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12 July 1493. First edition. Folio (16 5/8" x 11 13/16", 422mm x 300mm). [Full collation available.] Foll. CCLXIIII and CCLXVII supplied in facsimile; lacking the final blank (or two) after De Sarmacia. With some 1809 woodcuts, integral to the text, by Michael Wolgemut, Wihelm Pleydenwurff and almost certainly Albrecht Dürer. Bound in later dark mottled sheep (rebacked, with the original back-strip laid down), with a gilt fillet border. On the spine, six raised bands. Title (OPVS.CHRONIC./HANN.SCHEDEL.) gilt to red sheep in the second panel. Marbled end-papers. Rebacked, with the original back-strip laid down. First two panels of the backstrip split and coming up. Rubbed at the extremities. First free end-paper coming up. Initials (register-XV) and end-matter (CCXCI-end) mounted onto guards. Lacking leaves CCLXIIII and CCLXVII (supplied in facsimile) and the final blank (or two) after De Sarmacia. Leaf CLXXXVIII with loss to the lower spine-corner, supplied in facsimile. Various repairs (including one in thread to the 18th preliminary leaf). Leaf XCVIII slit horizontally. Leaf CCXCVI soiled at the fore-edge. Generally quite a clean copy, with good margins (albeit some shaved head-lines). Scattered marginalia (one (CXVIIIr) dated to 1555), mostly in secretarial hand. Armorial ex-libris of the convent of the Grands Augustins in Lyon and of Lionel H. Pries to the front paste-down. Pries's bibliographical cuttings pasted to the recto of the initial binder's blank. Obliterated bookplate adjacent to the Grands Augustins ex-libris. Armorial bookplate of a French count on the rear paste-down. Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514) is the historian who compiled the text of the Chronicae, but in some ways his was the least important role in the process of the book. In the era of printing's infancy (incunabula means "swaddling-clothes"), the printers and publishers (including investors) were often the more important agents in the creation of a book. Schedel lived on the same street as nearly all of his partners in the venture. This extraordinary neighborhood of book-producers came together to produce something that far surpassed the long-established genre of chronicles to which it belongs. Two colophons give different accounts of the work's completion; we know that it was begun in December of 1491. The first colophon (fol. CCLXVIr) gives 5 June 1493 as the date of completion. The second (fol. CCCv), which is fuller and gives the names of the publishers, gives 12 July 1493. The lasting appeal of the Chronicle, of which 1,205 copies survive according to the census in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, is its extraordinary woodcuts and their contribution to the overall layout. The cuts themselves vary widely in sophistication, from the almost modernist repeated cut of locusts to detailed city-views (for which the Chronicle is perhaps most famous) and the tight repertory of kings and queens, popes and popesses (Pope Joan on fol. CLXIXv is unmutilated; often zealous owners have scratched out her image or her description), which do not vary based on era or nationality. The volume must have resided for a time in Germany, as some of the marginal comments are in German, though most are in French. The unidentified armorial bookplate on the rear paste-down appears to be the oldest, and is likely French. The next point of ownership is the convent of the Grands Augustins in Lyon. Lionel "Spike" Pries (1897-1968) was a Seattle-based architect who studied at U.C. Berkeley and then at the University of Pennsylvania. Pries directed the Art Institute of Seattle (now the Seattle Art Museum) 1931-1932. BMC II, p. 437; BSB-Ink S-195; Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke M40784; Hain (rev. Copinger), Repertorium bibliographicum II.2 *14508; Klebs, Incunabula scientifica et medica 889.1; ISTC no. is00307000; Sabin 77523; Shirley 19.

The Liber Chronicarum, also known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, is a historical book written by Hartmann Schedel and published in 1493, detailing world history.