The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum)

[Hartmann Schedel], Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493), Folio CLXXVII. Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries

The Nuremberg Chronicle is one of the best examples of the advances made in book design and production by the 15th century. Each page of the Chronicle is designed as a double spread composed of 14 basic page layouts. The above page is a common arrangment with a vertical strip of woodcuts taking 1/4 page and the text filling the other 3/4. The manuscript layouts for the book show that the woodblock subjects were sketched in first and the text was then inscribed to fit within the remaining space. The implication is that the illustrations took precedence over the text. However, for the most part the text and the images work together to tell a story, unlike earlier books in which the position of the images and text did not always correspond.

The printer of the Chronicle, Anton Koberger, was one of Europe's foremost publishers operating 24 presses and employing approximately 100 people. However, when it came to the printing of the Nuremberg Chronicle Koberger was hired simply to print the work and paid by the number of sheets printed. He had no financial involvement in the production of the Chronicle, an unusual occurrence at this time. Koberger's primary responsibility was to oversee the printing of the work as well as to select the typeface,for which he chose Schwambacher type for the German edition and Rotunda for the Latin.

Click on the images below to learn more about the production and meaning of the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Chronicles	Schedel's Sources	The Artists	Illustrations	Book Design	Worldview

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