Beschreibung:

Liber chronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 12th July 1493. Imperial folio (464 x 323 mm.) 328 leaves (the final blank pasted down). Woodcut title, c. 1809 woodcut illustrations printed from 645 blocks by Michael Wolgemut Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop, including Albrecht Dürer comprising 29 double-page town views, 8 full-page woodcuts and double-page maps of the World [Shirley 19] and of Europe by Hieronymus Münzer after Nicolas Khrypffs. 2- and 3-line printed and 7- to 14-line Lombard initials. BOLDLY COLORED THROUGHOUT BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND. CONTEMPORARY NUREMBERG PIGSKIN OVER WOODEN BOARDS, ruled and stamped in blind and silver, upper cover lettered in silver: "Liber cronicarum cum figuris," large brass central and corner pieces, brass clasps and catch-plates. First few leaves repaired along inner margin, some leaves with old marginal repairs mostly to blank margin, a few leaves with closed tears, some minor marginal worming, leaf 100 (view of Nuremberg) with repair to lower right corner affecting tiny portion of the images, filled in with manuscript facsimile, some light mostly marginal staining. Upper joint and lower edges splitting. Provenance: Heraldic devices (the first Franconian [?] owners) filling the shields on the Good the Father woodcut attributed to Wolgemut; Goodspeed's Book Shop (purchased December 1956). FIRST EDITION, OF THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE, HAND COLORED BY CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS AND BOUND FOR THE PUBLISHER IN NUREMBERG BY THE "WELTCHRONIK-MEISTER." The Nuremberg Chronicle, a pictorial history of the world, is the most lavishly illustrated book of the incunable aera. The 29 large double-page city views, many illustrated for the first time, are accurate in depicting particular distinguished features of each city. In addition it includes many details of 15th-century daily life: carpenters with their tools, astronomers and their instruments, archers, bridges, derricks, dishes, furniture, windmills, ships, beds, houses, fortifications, weapons, tents, wharves, ferries, books, drawing materials, dogs, horses, and other animals, as well as costumes. Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle epitomizes "the commercial sophistication, economic power and technical virtuosity that brought the art of print to this extraordinary climax" (Pettegree). It was offered for sale at two prices. "Unbound and uncolored it could be obtained for a third of the price of bound and colored copies... Some of the copies were colored in Wolgemut's establishment" (Shaffer). A BOLDY AND BEAUTIFULLY COLORED TALL COPY IN THE FIRST BINDING. The Nuremberg bindery, referred to as "Blumenstock II," or "Weltchronik-Meister," was active in Nuremberg 1476-1516 (see Kyriss 117). Previously linked to the printshop of Anton Koberger See tools: "Herz, von Pfeil durchbohrt," "Rautengerank, gefüllt mit Blattwerk und Blüten" and Griffin. Reference: BMC II 437.IC 7451; BSB-Ink. S-195; Bod-Inc. S-108; CIBN S-161; Goff S-307; GW M40784; HC *14508; Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance, New Haven, 2011 p. 42; Reske, The Production of Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle Wiesbaden, 2000; Ellen Shaffer The Nuremberg Chronicle Los Angeles, 1950; Wilson, The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle Amsterdam, 1976; For the binding tools see online: Einbanddatenbank, State Library Berlin (w001532; p001311 and k013670); Kyriss 117; Schwenke-Schunke II, S. 208.