Books

Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12 July 1493. Exceptionally rare colored example of the first edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century. Imperial folio, bound in full 17th-century pigskin over bevelled wooden boards with elaborate blind tooling and scrolling to the spine and panels, brass cornerpieces, 2 fore-edge clasps, 325 leaves (of 328, without blank 55/6 and 61/5-6; fos. 9/3.4, 25/1, 53/6, 54/5 and possibly others supplied from another copy), quire 55 bound at end, fos. CCLVIIII-CCLXI blank except for printed headlines. 1809 woodcut illustrations printed from 645 blocks (S.C. Cockerell's count, some German woodcuts of the fifteenth century, 1897, pp.35-6), by Michael Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop, including Albrecht Durer, lombards, woodcuts coloured by a near-contemporary hand, 14-line initial opening text in interlocking red and blue with purple penwork…

Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated world history from the biblical creation to the 15th century, authored by Hartmann Schedel.