Genealogical Page; published in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel

1493

and Wilhelm Playdenwurff

(German, 1494)

Culture

Germany

Medium

woodcut

Credit Line

Gift of Lillian Hammer 1942.540

Catalogue raisonné

Schreiber V.248.5203

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Location

Not on view

Description

After Johann Gutenberg's Bible (1453-56), the Nuremberg Chronicle is the most famous 15th-century publication and an early bestseller, documenting history from the creation of the world to the voyages of discovery in the 1490s. The book's large scale (18.11 x 12.59 x 3.5 inches), unprecedented number of illustrations (1,809 woodcuts printed from 645 woodblocks), and great length (over 600 pages) made it the most ambitious printed publication since the invention of movable type just a few decades earlier. Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff illustrated the text and provided complete manuscript layouts, an unusual procedure at the time but nonetheless successful in closely integrating the images and text, producing an extraordinarily cohesive unit.