(Schedel, Hartmann. Liber Chronicarum)

(NUREMBERG CHRONICLE)

Anton Koberger

(Nuremberg

1493)

Latin. Hand colored woodcut illustration

This single leaf (Folio XXXII) from Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum, more commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, presents two alternative renditions of the Menorah or seven-branched candelabrum of theTemple. The first (recto) according to the “ancient doctors”; the second according to “Rabbi Moses [Maimonides]” (verso). Schedel (1440-1514), a German humanist and historian, divides in his Chronicle world history from Creation until the present (1493) into six ages. The book owes its extreme popularity to the fine woodcuts by two artists, Michael Wolgemuth and Wiliam Preydenwurff