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First edition, an outstanding copy of the first illustrated encyclopaedia published at the dawn of the discovery period, decorated with a magnificent illuminated border attributed to the Pico Master, and also containing first-hand observations and a drawing of the comet of 1507 by Bartolomeo Zamberti. Bartolomeo Zamberti (born c.1473), Venetian scientist, humanist, and collector, was the first translator of Euclid from the original Greek (Venice, 1505). His standing in the intellectual community of his day is evinced by the fact that he pronounced the funeral oration of Giorgio Valla, whose mantle as the leading humanist interested in Greek mathematics he inherited. The long autograph note on f. 259r signed by Zamberti occurs on the first of the three blanks which Schedel has inserted in the work so that the reader could "emend, add, and record the deeds of rulers and private men in time to come". On this blank, Zamberti records his prediction and subsequent observation of a comet in Venice on 1 April 1507, along with an accompanying sketch. Below this note is another inscription signed by Maximus Tacitus Spilimbergensis (Spilimbergo is in the Veneto), describing how he was ordered by Zamberti to record the effects of the devastating earthquake in Venice in 1511. He gives details of marble statues and masonry falling from St. Mark's with the monks of San Giorgio Maggiore watching. The manuscript note on f. 266 records the appearance of a comet in 1680, "significans First edition, an outstanding copy of the first illustrated encyclopaedia published at the dawn of the discovery period, decorated with a magnificent illuminated border attributed to the Pico Master, and also containing first-hand observations and a drawing of the comet of 1507 by Bartolomeo Zamberti. Bartolomeo Zamberti (born c.1473), Venetian scientist, humanist, and collector, was the first translator of Euclid from the original Greek (Venice, 1505). His standing in the intellectual community of his day is evinced by the fact that he pronounced the funeral oration of Giorgio Valla, whose mantle as the leading humanist interested in Greek mathematics he inherited. The long autograph note on f. 259r signed by Zamberti occurs on the first of the three blanks which Schedel has inserted in the work so that the reader could "emend, add, and record the deeds of rulers and private men in time to come". On this blank, Zamberti records his prediction and subsequent observation of a comet in Venice on 1 April 1507, along with an accompanying sketch. Below this note is another inscription signed by Maximus Tacitus Spilimbergensis (Spilimbergo is in the Veneto), describing how he was ordered by Zamberti to record the effects of the devastating earthquake in Venice in 1511. He gives details of marble statues and masonry falling from St. Mark's with the monks of San Giorgio Maggiore watching. The manuscript note on f. 266 records the appearance of a comet in 1680, "significans Turcharum excidium", and describes the defeat of the Turks at Vienna at the hands of Jan III (Sobieski), King of Poland, which took place on September 12, 1685. The note on the blank f. 326, apparently in the same hand as the previous note, records earthquakes in Sicily, Mantua and Venice. As a summation of geographical and universal knowledge, the Nuremberg Chronicle stands as a product of the Renaissance civilization celebrated in Jacob Burckhardt's famous essay. It is revealing of Schedel's world view that it is not a closed system, hence his inclusion of blank leaves for readers to complete the chronicle according to their own experience. It is telling that of all the things that Zamberti could have recorded, what he did in fact record was his observation of a comet. It was close observation of the heavens and reflection upon such that would upset the traditional Ptolemaic cosmology and expand the horizons of the world in ways that not even Bartolomeo Zamberti could have foreseen. The 15th-century Venetian artist known as the Master of the Pico Pliny, or simply the Pico Master, enjoyed a career spanning 1460 to 1505, in which they produced hand-painted decoration in both manuscripts and incunabula (e.g. nine extant copies of the 1472 Jenson Pliny) and designed woodcuts for printed books. Despite this prolific career, they remain anonymous and are identified based upon the stylistic illumination in a manuscript of Pliny's Historia naturalis produced for the philosopher and founder of Christian Kabbalah, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) in 1481: now Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, MS. Lat. VI, 245 (2976). (See The Painted Page: Italian Renaissance Book Illumination 1450-1550, p. 41, figure 28.) The illumination in this copy was identified as the work of the Pico Master by Prof. Jonathan J. G. Alexander of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. The most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century and a universally acknowledged masterpiece of complex design, the Chronicle was compiled by the Nuremberg physician, humanist and bibliophile Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514). The text is a year-by-year account of notable events in world history from the Creation to the year of publication, including the invention of printing at Mainz, the exploration of the Atlantic and of Africa, as well as references to the game of chess and to medical curiosities, including what is believed to be the first depiction of conjoined twins. Drawn by the author from multiple medieval and Renaissance sources, such as Bede, Vincent of Beauvais, Martin of Tropau, Flavius Blondus, Bartolomeo Platina, and Philippus de Bergamo (Iacopo Filippo Foresta), the Chronicle also incorporates geographical and historical information on European countries and towns. The colophon on 266r marks the completion of the work of Hartmann Schedel; George Alt, a scribe at Nuremberg treasury who made the German translation, is the author of the remainder of the text. The book is especially famed for its series of over 1,800 woodcuts depicting biblical subjects, classical and medieval history, and a large series of city views in Europe and the Middle East - Augsburg, Bamberg, Basel, Cologne, Nuremberg, Rome, Ulm and Vienna among them, also Jerusalem (and its destruction) and Byzantium. The double-page map of Europe includes the British Isles, Iceland and Scandinavia, and the Ptolemaic world map is apparently sourced from the frontispiece of Pomponius Mela's Cosmographia (Venice, Ratdolt, 1488). The Latin edition was printed in Koberger's shop between May 1492 and October 1493. Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle (1976), approves Dr Peter Zahn's count of probably 1,500 Latin copies printed, of which approximately 1,240 have survived. Although copies of Schedel are therefore far from rare, decorated copies with a distinguished provenance from a localizable and dateable milieu are rarely, if ever, seen on the market. Imperial folio (462 x 310 mm). Bound in 16th-century blind tooled goatskin over bevelled wooden boards, roll-border of knotwork design with flower tool, central panel and round centerpiece decorated with similar designs, brass corner- and centerpieces, carefully rebacked and repaired. Contemporary Italian illuminated border on f. 1, with a large initial of St Peter (?), miniature of two astronomers, one ancient (Ptolemy) and one contemporary, a Greek motto (= "A Reminder of Famous Deeds") and coat-of-arms of Bartolomeo Zamberti. 326 leaves (complete), ff. [20], 299, [1], with 6-leaf Sarmatian supplement (quire 55, last leaf blank with manuscript note) bound between ff. 66 and 267). 63 lines plus headline, Gothic letter, xylographic title-page, 645 woodcut illustrations by Pleyden Two long 16th-century inscriptions on blank f. 259r and two 17th-century inscriptions on f. 266 and blank f. 326, 2 ff. 19th-century English manuscript notes about the illumination bound after the Register. Marginal discoloration on title, catalogue mark "15973" in gutter of f. [2]; gutter and outer edges of some index leave repaired, tears on f. [6] repaired, not affecting legibility; repairs to heading of ff. 65, 79, 146, 250, 291, waterstaining in gutter (f. CXIII-CXXII), paper flaw on f. 197v affecting 2 words, blank corners of ff. 225, 230, [235], 248 replaced; two small wormtracks in blank lower margin of final 20 ff., map of Europe repaired in gutter, toning in gutter and margins of scattered leaves. Overall a tall, fresh copy with the woodcuts in excellent impressions. HC 14508*; BMC II 437; Klebs 889.1; Polain(B) 3469; Goff S307.

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