Destruccio Iherosolime [”Destruction of Jerusalem.”] Double-page woodcut by Michael Wohlgemuth and Hans Pleydenwurff from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

SCHEDEL, HARTMANN.

Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1493

Laor 1125.

This fantasy view of the Holy City is taken from Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (f. LXIIII). Schedel (1440-1514) was a German humanist and historian. His book, more commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, divides world history into six ages - from Creation until the present (1493). The work owes its extreme popularity to the fine woodcuts by the artists Wolgemuth and Preydenwurff. Many of these woodcuts are sheer fantasy, such as that of the present Destruction of Jerusalem. Nonetheless, historians find of value those woodcuts that reflect the reality of several contemporary towns. In the left foreground Solomon’s Temple goes up in flames while spectators converse nonchalantly. At the extreme right is the road to Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. The verso (f. LXIII) includes a woodcut scene of the last king of Judea, Zedekiah, blinded and led away into Babylonian captivity by the wicked Nebuchadnezzar. The facing page is surrounded by the the last prophets and kings of old Judea: Haggai and Malachi, Joachim and Zerubabel.