Two 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle Woodcut Leaves – Florence & Bamberg Views (Auction 2026-06-05, Lot 177A)

$1,028.00

A pair of incunable laid paper leaves from Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum, the celebrated Nuremberg Chronicle printed by Anton Koberger in 1493. One sheet unfurls a sweeping panorama of Florence, the Arno threading past walled quarters bristling with campaniles and the unmistakable swell of Brunelleschi’s dome rising above terracotta rooftops, a small boat gliding in the foreground. The verso, set in dense Gothic Latin type, carries portraits of pontiffs and Holy Roman emperors framed within the chronicle’s signature columned layout. The companion leaf presents a view of Bamberg, its monastic precinct anchored by the cathedral and abbey of St. Michael, paired on its reverse with further imperial and papal medallion portraits flanking the chronicle’s narrative of the Carolingian and Ottonian succession.

Printed from hand-cut woodblocks by the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, the same atelier that trained the young Albrecht Durer, the Chronicle stands as the most ambitious illustrated book of the fifteenth century, a universal history yoking biblical chronology to contemporary cartography. The Florence and Bamberg vedute are among the relatively few topographically accurate city views in the volume, most others being reused generic woodblocks, which lends these particular leaves an enduring documentary fascination. The colors here appear to be early hand-applied washes, a practice frequently commissioned by the book’s first owners to elevate the printed page toward the splendor of an illuminated manuscript.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection

Condition: Poor. Top portion of Page with Florence has been cut off and page has been folded to mainly display map of Florence. both have been repaired at center with some creasing and possible touching up. Bamberg has some chipping and small losses to edges. Both have some small tears and discoloring to paper. Otherwise, very clear imagery with good remaining pigments.