Schedel, View of Paris with View of Mainz to verso — Liber Chronicarum, 1493

An original woodcut leaf from the first Latin edition of Hartmann Schedel's Liber Chronicarum, more commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger and published in July 1493. The recto carries the View of Paris (Parisius) on folio XXXIX, accompanied by Schedel's Latin account of the city's foundation by Trojan refugees and its development under the Frankish kings. The verso bears the View of Mainz (Maguncia) with its associated text on the metropolitan see of Germany, the Rhine, and the nearby commercial fair at Frankfurt.

The Liber Chronicarum is one of the most important illustrated incunables ever produced. Compiled by the Nuremberg physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514), it traces world history from the Creation to the present and is illustrated with more than 1,800 woodcuts cut by the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Wolgemut's apprentice at the time was the young Albrecht Dürer, and many scholars accept that Dürer contributed designs to the project before leaving for his Wanderjahre. The book was financed by the Nuremberg merchants Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister and printed in an edition believed to be limited to around 1,400 to 1,500 Latin copies, with the German translation following in December of the same year.

This leaf carries two cities of unusual significance for the history of European printing. Mainz is the city of Johannes Gutenberg, where the printing press itself was invented around 1450, only forty-three years before this leaf was struck. Paris by 1493 had become the largest city of northern Europe and a major centre of manuscript and early print production. To find the two on a single 1493 sheet from the Koberger press, illustrated by the workshop that trained Dürer, makes this a particularly resonant document of the first half-century of European printing.

A note on the woodcut blocks. Schedel and Wolgemut economised across the Chronicle by using a number of generic city blocks for cities the workshop had not seen, and re-using them under different captions. The Paris and Mainz views here are imaginative compositions in the late Gothic manner, not topographically accurate views of either city. Their value lies in the typography, the woodblock impression, and the historical importance of the book itself, not in any claim to documentary record.

Condition

Very good. Strong, clear impression on Schedel's heavy laid paper with bright Gothic typeface and crisp blackletter. Light scattered foxing in the lower margin and a small marginal stain to the recto, well outside the woodblock area. Some faint show-through of the verso text and image, as is normal and expected for a 1493 incunable leaf printed on both sides. No tears, no repairs, no losses to the printed area. [CONFIRM dimensions: full sheet approximately 30 × 44 cm, woodcut approximately 19 × 22 cm — please measure.]

Rarity

The Latin first edition of 1493 is the desirable issue, printed six months before the German translation and in a slightly larger run on better paper. While leaves from broken copies appear in the trade with some regularity, recto-verso city pairs of this calibre are less common, and the Mainz–Paris combination is unusually rich in printing-history significance. Complete copies of the Latin edition trade at six figures; intact double-page spreads at low five figures; single double-sided city leaves of this quality typically retail in the £600–£900 range at established dealers.

Specifications

Title: View of Paris (Parisius) with View of Mainz (Maguncia) to verso, folio XXXIX

Artist / workshop: Michael Wolgemut (1434–1519) and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (c.1450–1494), with possible contributions from the young Albrecht Dürer

Author: Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514)

Publication: Liber Chronicarum (the Nuremberg Chronicle), Latin first edition

Printer / publisher: Anton Koberger, Nuremberg, for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, July 1493

Medium: Woodcut on laid paper, with letterpress text in Gothic type

Dimensions: [] approximately 30 × 44 cm full sheet