The World's First Encyclopedia
German Author Hartmann Schedel Wrote Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493
Sep 22, 2009
As the 15th century neared its end, the printing industry had grown into one of Europe’s most profitable endeavors. Books became bigger and more lavish with each passing year. The largest and most successful of these printers was Anton Koberger of Nuremberg, Germany.
Koberger Published Many Large and Complex Illustrated Books
Exceptionally large for its time, Koberger’s shop had 24 presses and more than one hundred workers. During the twenty year period from 1480 to 1500, he published a wide range of expensive illustrated volumes, catering to wealthy collectors who clambered for colored woodcuts by popular artists. One of his workers was his godson Albrecht Durer, who went on to become one of the foremost figures in German Renaissance art.
Hartmann Schedel was the Author of the World’s First Encyclopedia
The most renowned book ever printed by Koberger was Liber Chronicarum, published in 1493 in Nuremberg. It was written by popular medieval scholar and author Hartmann Schedel and touted as the “history of the world from Creation through 1493”. Schedel was a German humanist with a law degree who also practiced medicine. Using his remarkable personal library as a resource, he outlined, collected and hand-copied selections from manuscripts that have not since survived anywhere else on earth.
The Nuremberg Chronicle included a progressive chronology of six “ages” of man’s history going back to biblical creation and ending in 1493. In addition to historical accounts and stunning artwork, it also contained encyclopedia reference materials such as biographies of important men from all over the world. Schedel was unique in his world view at the time, including non-Germans in his text. He also included legends, traditions and a few scientific facts and figures, making his work more than a history book and qualifying it as the first true attempt at an encyclopedia of human knowledge.
The Physical Attributes of Liber Chronicarum
Commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, it was a huge volume of more than 300 pages, weighing in at 25 pounds and measuring almost 20 inches tall. Almost every page had at least one of the 1,809 illustrations or woodcuts done by artists Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. These works of art ranged in size from no larger than a postage stamp to double-page plates measuring nearly 26” across. There were town views, maps, portraits of kings, emperors, popes and other notable figures of the time.
Koberger printed approximately 1,420 copies in Latin and another 800 or so in German. Some left the bindery with colored woodcuts and others did not. It is unclear whether it was Koberger’s intent to have all of them colored before being sold or to have buyers order the coloring afterwards. Each book was bound in pigskin on wooden boards, with brass clasps holding the heavy boards together.
Although it was lacking in some areas of human endeavor, such as pure science, Liber Chronicarum was the first printed book to compile articles on the entire range of human life. It included much in the area of history but also branched out into the humanities, the arts, the law and other topics. It was as well-rounded as its humanist author and therefore qualifies as a true encyclopedia reference.
Sources:
Rodger, William. “Old Illustrated Books Fascinate Modern Readers”, Antique Monthly, August 1972.
Dackerman, Susan. Painted Prints: the revelation of color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings and Woodcuts, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002
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