1123 - Nuremberg Chronicle, two incunabulum leaves, popes, Emperor Lothair and hailstorm, Nuremberg 1493

Nuremberg Chronicle, two incunabulum leaves, popes, Emperor Lothair and hailstorm, Nuremberg 1493 Two text leaves, letterpress and woodcut on paper, incunabula of German printing with woodcuts in the text margins, each with the headline "Sexta etas mundi", foliated recto "CLXX" and "CLXXVIII", Latin text with red rubrication, from Hartmann Schedel's world chronicle ("Liber chronicarum"), Latin edition, Nuremberg, Anton Koberger 1493. Leaf "CLXX" recto with woodcuts of the emperor "Lotharius", a hailstorm and two English kings, "Adeulphus rex" and "Eadimūdus rex", verso three portraits of popes with tiara and cross staff, "Benedictus tercius", "Nicolaus primus" and "Hadrianus secūdus"; leaf "CLXXVIII" recto text page headed "De progressu imperii ac trāslatione eius in germanos.", verso five portraits of popes, "Joannes duodecimus", "Benedictus quintus", "Leo octauus", "Joannes terciusdecimus" and "Bn̄dictus sextus", a manuscript marginal note on one page. Condition commensurate with age, partly stained and creased, marginal defects and small marginal chips. Overall 41.5x29 cm (HxW). The Schedel world chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik), also called the Nuremberg Chronicle after its place of printing, is a richly illustrated world history by Hartmann Schedel. Anton Koberger printed the Latin version on 12 July 1493, and the German translation followed on 23 December 1493; it was commissioned by the Nuremberg citizens Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister. The woodcuts were made in the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff; the young Albrecht Dürer was apprenticed to Wolgemut from 1486 to 1489. From 645 woodblocks some 1,800 illustrations were produced, because city views, battles and portraits of rulers appeared several times with new captions. The chronicle divides history into seven ages of the world; the sixth, named in the headline as "Sexta etas mundi", extends to the authors' own time and forms the most extensive part, with the successions of popes and emperors. As an incunabulum, or cradle print, the work belongs to the earliest period of printing before 1501.