Worlds of Learning: The Library and World Chronicle of the Nuremberg Physician Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) ed. by Bettina Wagner (review)

The World Chronicle of the German physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514), first printed in 1493, was a huge success in the publishing world. Its major allure lay in the illustrations: more than 1800 woodcuts depicted biblical and historical events as well as views of towns. Since the book was so costly, copies of it were also jealously preserved by their successive owners. This resulted in a particularly high “survival rate” and explains why 1300 copies of the Latin edition and 400 of the German edition are still extant in public and private libraries around the world. An exhibition at the Bavarian State Library in Munich marked the 500th anniversary of the death of the Chronicle’s author, seeking to shed light on Schedel’s biography and presenting his private library that he used to compile his World Chronicle. The organizers arranged the exhibits chronologically along the course of Schedel’s life, showing, for example, books he read as a student in Padua, texts he used to expand his knowledge as a physician in Germany, and many examples of his wide-ranging curiosity as a collector. His interests ranged from classical literature, philosophy, history, and geography to medicine, law, and theology. Among the most fascinating documents are, for example, booklists he obtained from Rome during his hunt for incunables (pp. 101–04). A core challenge of the exhibition was to elucidate the sources and working methods of Schedel in compiling his World Chronicle. This fascinating goal is not completely reached. We are not carried very far beyond what is already known—namely, that contemporary Italian writers such as Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Biondo Flavio, Bartolomeo Platina, and Giacomo Filippo Foresti strongly influenced Schedel. In Worlds of Learning, Bernd Posselt (“The World Chronicle and Its Sources,” pp. 117–20) draws on his doctoral dissertation completed in Munich in 2013, touching on how Schedel’s Chronicle integrated religious content (such as events in ecclesiastical history and Church-state relations) with world history (the six ages of the world, followed by the appearance of the antichrist and the Last Judgment).

This exhibition catalog presents many stimulating questions regarding the worldview of a private book collector of the Renaissance. Like Schedel’s illustrated Chronicle itself (which was published in German and Latin), the exhibition catalog is beautifully illustrated and available in two languages (German and English). The English edition will be welcomed—like Schedel’s Latin version of 1493—by an international audience.