HARTMANN SCHEDEL – NUREMBERG CHRONICLE – SAINT BERNARD, MEDIEVAL PRODIGIES & HUMAN-CANINE MONSTER – ORIGINAL GERMAN INCUNABLE WOODCUT LEAF – NUREMBERG – 1493

Description: A highly attractive and unusually varied original incunable leaf, Blatt CXCVIII, from the German-language edition of Hartmann Schedel’s Weltchronik, universally known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed at Nuremberg by Anton Koberger on 23 December 1493. The German edition followed the Latin edition of 12 July in the same year and was produced using the celebrated woodcut programme created principally in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Cambridge University Library confirms that the German project was completed on 23 December 1493 and that the two editions contained more than 1,800 printed images produced from approximately 641–643 blocks; the Metropolitan Museum of Art likewise records Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff as the principal artists responsible for the Chronicle’s illustrations.

The recto is headed “der werlt – Blat CXCVIII” and begins with “Sant Bernhart”, an extensive account of St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). Schedel describes Bernard’s noble Burgundian birth, his entry into the Cistercian order with thirty companions, his election as abbot of Clairvaux, his writings and reputed miracles, and his role in encouraging Conrad III and the French nobility to take up the Second Crusade after the loss of Edessa. Bernard is represented by a substantial woodcut portrait at upper right, shown as a mitred ecclesiastical figure holding a crozier. The German transcription of this exact folio confirms the complete sequence and identifies the subject explicitly as “Sant Bernhart”.

Immediately below appears Petrus Alfonsus, the converted Jewish scholar formerly known as Moses, represented in a smaller portrait woodcut. The accompanying text recounts his conversion to Christianity, baptism and adoption of the name Petrus Alfonsus in honour of his royal sponsor, Alfonso of Spain. Petrus Alfonsi was an important conduit for Arabic and Jewish learning into medieval Christian Europe, and his appearance gives the leaf an additional layer of intellectual-historical interest.

The remainder of the recto is exceptionally engaging because Schedel moves from biography into a sequence of wonders, prodigies and extraordinary natural phenomena. Three separate woodcuts depict atmospheric or celestial events: a shower-like phenomenon associated with the statement that blood rained in parts of Italy, dramatic rays or fiery streaks appearing across the heavens, and another shower or fall from the sky. The accompanying text records fiery rays, stars apparently falling to earth, an exceptionally severe winter followed by famine, an earthquake lasting forty days in parts of Italy, and the moon becoming darkened and blood-coloured. A circular woodcut of a human-faced moon illustrates this ominous lunar phenomenon. The transcription of Blatt CXCVIII confirms these extraordinary notices, including the statements that “in dem monat Junii … in Welschen lannden plut geregnet” and that the moon was darkened and blood-coloured.

Most striking of all is the large lower-right woodcut illustrating one of the Chronicle’s characteristic accounts of a monstrous birth. The German text records that a woman gave birth to a wondrous double form, human in front and with the face of a dog behind — “ein wunder gestalt zwifachs leibs, vornen eins menschen vnnd hindten eins hundes angesiht habende”. The woodcut visualises this extraordinary creature with a human figure and a second canine head projecting behind it. Such images belong to the late-medieval tradition of recording monstrous births and prodigies as meaningful disruptions of the natural order, and they are amongst the most immediately recognisable and collectable subjects in the Nuremberg Chronicle. The same passage also records a sow giving birth to a piglet with a human face and the hatching of an abnormal four-legged creature.

The verso, headed “Das sechst alter” or “The Sixth Age”, continues the Chronicle’s universal history with a particularly strong group of ecclesiastical and historical portraits. At upper right are Pope Innocent II and Pope Celestine II, each shown crowned and holding the papal cross. The text recounts Innocent II’s conflicts in Italy and the papal schism, while Celestine II’s short pontificate is treated immediately below. A larger portrait of Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, commemorates the celebrated missionary bishop associated with the Christianisation of Pomerania, and a further portrait depicts Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem. The text also discusses Honorius II and the wider political and ecclesiastical history of the Crusader period. The exact sequence of Innocent II, Celestine II, Otto of Bamberg and Baldwin III is independently confirmed by the transcription of the verso of folio CXCVIII.

The Nuremberg Chronicle was one of the supreme achievements of fifteenth-century printing: a vast illustrated universal history tracing the world from Creation to Schedel’s own time. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes it as the most profusely illustrated book of the fifteenth century, while Cambridge likewise regards it as one of the major illustrated incunabula. The woodcuts were produced under Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff, with studio assistants involved in the enormous project. The young Albrecht Dürer had trained in Wolgemut’s workshop, but individual Chronicle blocks should not be assigned to Dürer without specific evidence; the correct attribution for the present illustrations is to the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.

Condition: Very good condition overall for an original incunable leaf more than 530 years old. The sheet retains unusually generous margins and the printed area is exceptionally well preserved. The Gothic letterpress and numerous woodcut impressions remain strong, dark and clearly defined. There is light general age-toning, occasional very minor spotting and marking, faint old creasing and folding, slight marginal handling and a little edge irregularity consistent with removal from an early binding. No substantial loss affects the printed composition. Uncoloured, retaining the original monochrome character of the 1493 impression. Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.

Author: Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514)
Title: Das Buch der Chroniken und Geschichten / Schedelsche Weltchronik – the Nuremberg Chronicle
Leaf: Blatt CXCVIII
Translator: German vernacular edition, traditionally associated with Georg Alt
Printer: Anton Koberger
Artists: Workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff
Place: Nuremberg
Date: 23 December 1493
Edition: First German edition
Format: Original single incunable folio leaf
Sheet Size: 29.8 × 42.1 cm
Language: German
Technique: Letterpress with numerous original woodcut illustrations
Principal Subjects: St Bernard of Clairvaux; Petrus Alfonsus; blood rain; celestial and meteorological prodigies; blood-coloured moon; human-canine monstrous birth; Innocent II; Celestine II; Otto of Bamberg; Baldwin III of Jerusalem
Period: Incunable – printed before 1501

Every early printed leaf offered by Hornseys is handled, inspected and catalogued individually in-house, with edition, typography, illustration, subject matter and condition assessed directly from the original wherever possible.

Scarcity: Individual leaves from the Nuremberg Chronicle do appear on the antiquarian market because incomplete copies have historically been dispersed; however, desirability varies considerably according to edition, condition and subject. The German edition was printed separately in December 1493, and the present leaf is considerably more engaging than a routine portrait or text leaf because it combines multiple named historical figures with an unusually rich group of medieval prodigies and a large monstrous-birth woodcut.

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