Schedel, Hartmann (sold)

Hartmann Schedel (February 13, 1440 - November 28, 1514) was a German historian, physician, book collector, and humanist. He was among the first to reproduce a map using the printing press. He was born and died in Nuremberg. Little is known of his youth or education, although it is understood that the professor of philosophy and medicine, Matheolus Perusinus, was his tutor; he is thought to have studied in the university at Florence. Schedel is remembered for having written the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik in German, Liber Cronicarum in Latin.) As per its title, the book is a chronicle: it begins with a restatement of Biblical history reaching back to Creation before addressing the ancient world following the Biblical era, and recording more contemporary history - followed by a handful of pages left blank, in order that the reader should record the few years left of this sixth age of the world prior to the book's description of the seventh age of the world, that is to say the end of the world as presented in the Bible. Despite its adherence to this medieval form, the work would be the most lavishly illustrated work at the dawn of the Age of Discovery, and was an important conduit for the spread of humanistic learning north of the Alps. It included one of the first printed world maps, an excellent map of central Europe, and 29 full page city views representing the earliest realistic printed images of the cities they represented. Schedel was also a noted book and art collector: his private library is preserved in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, Germany.