Destruccio Iherosolime [“Destruction of Jerusalem.”]

SCHEDEL, HARTMANN.

Nuremberg, first edition 1493 (or later)

Double-page hand-colored woodcut by Michael Wohlgemuth and Hans Pleydenwurff from the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Laor 1125.

This view of the Holy City is taken from Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum (f. LXIIII). Schedel (1440-1514) was a German humanist and historian. The Nuremberg Chronicle, divides world history into six ages - from Creation until the present (1493). It 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. In the left foreground Solomon’s Temple goes up in flames, at the extreme right is the road to Bethlehem.