Hartmann Schedel / Wohlgemut / Pleydenwurff / Durer - The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum) - Ordine di Rodi - Dante Alighieri (Folium CCXXIII) - 1493

This original leaf is an incunabulum from 1493, coming from the Liber Chronicarum, also known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the most famous and monumental works in the early history of printing. The text was drafted by the German humanist Hartmann Schedel, printed by the famous publisher Anton Koberger in Nuremberg, and illustrated with wood engravings from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. The page is part of the section entitled "Sexta aetās mundi" (Sexta etas mundi), dedicated to the Christian era. The leaf interweaves the history of the great defensive knightly institutions of Christendom in the Mediterranean with Italian 14th-century literary history and the complex dynastic and military fortunes of the lords of the peninsula.
The front of the leaf (bearing at the top the woodcut numbering CCXXIII) is dominated on the left by a large and evocative fortified woodcut view titled "Ordo rhodiorum militum principum", which illustrates the fortress of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John in Rhodes, describing its origin, papal privileges, and steadfast defense against incursions by the Turks and the Sultan of Egypt. At the bottom of the page are two portraits. The first depicts King John of Bohemia (Johannes rex bohemie), while the second, of exceptional cultural significance, portrays the great poet Dante Alighieri, identified in the Latin text as "Dantes aligerius patria florentinus vates & poeta perspicuus". The chronicle celebrates his nobility of spirit, his theological and philosophical studies in Paris, his mastery of the vernacular language, and the composition of the Divine Comedy, divided into Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, finally recalling his death and burial in Ravenna.
The reverse of the leaf opens beneath the general title "Gesta ea tempestate in Italia", focusing on the intricate warlike events, alliances, and power struggles that involved cities such as Ferrara, Modena, and the Republic of Venice. The right column hosts four solemn portraits of ruling figures and Italian lords of the 14th century: King Robert of Naples (Robertus rex), the lord of Verona Cangrande della Scala (Canis scaliger), placed under the woodcut caption "Beligerorum dominii principum" and celebrated for his military virtues, his justice, and his patronage, and finally King Louis of Sicily (Ludovicus rex). The Latin text describes in detail their alternating political fortunes, dynastic transitions, ties with the Avignon papal court, and the military conflicts that reshaped the geopolitical map of medieval Italy.
Dimensions 45 x 31 cm
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