The Book of Chronicles
The complete and annotated Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493. Excerpt from the introduction by Stephan Füssel
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The most important persons at whose suggestion the book was created, were the patrons and "publishers" Sebald Schreyer (1446-1520) and Sebastian Kammermeister (1446-1503). Schreyer had studied at the University of Leipzig from 1460 to 1462 before entering his father's fur trade in Nuremberg. In 1475 he married Margarethe Kammermeister, daughter of a wealthy Nuremberg family. As an elected member of the Great Council, he was widely involved in the city's economic and cultural affairs and, among other things, was church warden of St Sebald (1482-1503), in which capacity he was responsible for the renovation of the church and the extension of its spires. Sebald Schreyer also appears to have acted as a patron in other situations, personally subsidising Conrad Celtis and financing the library of St Sebald's.
Conrad Celtis and Schreyer had a close relationship, as witnessed by the 19 surviving letters from their correspondence in the period 1495 to 1504. Schreyer organised the printing of Celtis' works and supported him in another chronicle project, published in 1495 as De orgine, situ moribus et institutis Norimbergae libellus, and known as Norimberga, for which Celtis later received 20 guilders from the council. Once again, it was Georg Alt who translated the text into German, though Celtis was not entirely satisfied with his work. For this reason, he wrote an epigram to the "untalented translator of the history of Nuremberg".
Schreyer's links with his wealthy brother-in-law Sebastian Kammermeister went beyond the bonds of family ties, for they were both involved in a number of innovative financial projects. It is very probable that the initiative for Schedel's chronicle - as for other previous historical and bibliographic projects - came from Schreyer, with the joint financial backing of Kammermeister. Schreyer's importance to this undertaking is also evident in the fact that, after printing, he received the two manuscript layouts and had his ex-libris, featuring the combined crests of the Schreyer and Kammermeister families pasted into both.
A glance at these manuscripts clearly shows that the city treasurer Georg Alt, described only as a translator, had also been involved in writing the Latin edition. Alt, born in Augsburg around 1450, studied in Erfurt in 1466 and is documented as having citizens' rights in Nuremberg from 1473. His name occurs as a translator from Latin into German a number of times: translating a letter from the Bishop of Bamberg in 1490, the aforementioned German description of Nuremberg by Meisterlin in 1492, and Conrad Celtis' Norimberga in 1495 at the request of the Council of the City of Nuremberg. Given his experience as a translator and editor, he held an important position on the editorial board.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
The most important persons at whose suggestion the book was created, were the patrons and "publishers" Sebald Schreyer (1446-1520) and Sebastian Kammermeister (1446-1503). Schreyer had studied at the University of Leipzig from 1460 to 1462 before entering his father's fur trade in Nuremberg. In 1475 he married Margarethe Kammermeister, daughter of a wealthy Nuremberg family. As an elected member of the Great Council, he was widely involved in the city's economic and cultural affairs and, among other things, was church warden of St Sebald (1482-1503), in which capacity he was responsible for the renovation of the church and the extension of its spires. Sebald Schreyer also appears to have acted as a patron in other situations, personally subsidising Conrad Celtis and financing the library of St Sebald's.
Conrad Celtis and Schreyer had a close relationship, as witnessed by the 19 surviving letters from their correspondence in the period 1495 to 1504. Schreyer organised the printing of Celtis' works and supported him in another chronicle project, published in 1495 as De orgine, situ moribus et institutis Norimbergae libellus, and known as Norimberga, for which Celtis later received 20 guilders from the council. Once again, it was Georg Alt who translated the text into German, though Celtis was not entirely satisfied with his work. For this reason, he wrote an epigram to the "untalented translator of the history of Nuremberg".
Schreyer's links with his wealthy brother-in-law Sebastian Kammermeister went beyond the bonds of family ties, for they were both involved in a number of innovative financial projects. It is very probable that the initiative for Schedel's chronicle - as for other previous historical and bibliographic projects - came from Schreyer, with the joint financial backing of Kammermeister. Schreyer's importance to this undertaking is also evident in the fact that, after printing, he received the two manuscript layouts and had his ex-libris, featuring the combined crests of the Schreyer and Kammermeister families pasted into both.
A glance at these manuscripts clearly shows that the city treasurer Georg Alt, described only as a translator, had also been involved in writing the Latin edition. Alt, born in Augsburg around 1450, studied in Erfurt in 1466 and is documented as having citizens' rights in Nuremberg from 1473. His name occurs as a translator from Latin into German a number of times: translating a letter from the Bishop of Bamberg in 1490, the aforementioned German description of Nuremberg by Meisterlin in 1492, and Conrad Celtis' Norimberga in 1495 at the request of the Council of the City of Nuremberg. Given his experience as a translator and editor, he held an important position on the editorial board.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Chronicle of the World - 1493. Hartmann Schedel
Padded cover, 23.9 x 34 cm (9.4 x 13.4 in.), 680 pages
Hartmann Schedel's Chronicle of the World: A groundbreaking encyclopedic work and lavishly illustrated book
Albrecht Dürer: 'Portrait of Michael Wohlgemut', with monogram and dated 1516. Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum