Hartmann Schedel / Wohlgemut / Pleydenwurff / Durer - The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum) - Impero di Ottone II e Successione Pontificia (Folium - 1493

This original sheet is an incunabulum from 1493, belonging to the Liber Chronicarum, also known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the most celebrated and monumental works in the early history of printing. The text was drafted by the German humanist Hartmann Schedel, printed by the renowned publisher Anton Koberger in Nuremberg, and illustrated with woodcuts from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. The page is part of the section titled "Sixth Age of the World", dedicated to the Christian era. The text parallels the complex political and military arc of the Holy Roman Empire under the Ottonian dynasty at the end of the 10th century with the troubled succession of the Roman popes and the flowering of great monastic and intellectual figures.

The front of the sheet (which bears at the top right the clear woodcut numbering Folium CLXXXI) concentrates on imperial history under the heading woodcut "Line of the Emperors". The right column opens with the solemn portrait of Otto II (Otto secundus), an emperor celebrated and described in his alternating military fortunes in Italy against the Saracens and the Byzantines. Below, the page is enriched by a vertical sequence of important portraits: Archbishop Bruno of Cologne (Bruno episcopus), the venerable Abbot Odilo of Cluny (Odiolo abbas), the King of England Edward the Martyr (Edwardus rex), the influential intellectual and Arab philosopher Al-Farabi (Alpbarabius philosophus), the French king Louis V (Ludovicus rex), and finally the noble Theobald (Thedaldus comes). The Latin texts trace their biographies, celebrating their religious piety, monastic miracles, and the cultural impact in medieval Europe.

The back of the sheet shifts the focus to the history of the papacy, highlighted at the top right by the woodcut heading "Line of the High Pontiffs". The right column hosts four solemn portraits arranged vertically, depicting the popes from the late 10th to the early 11th century: Pope Gregory V (Gregonius [Gregorius] quintus), the first pope of German origin; Pope John XVI (Joannes septimusdecimus, erroneously numbered by the printers as seventeenth, but historically identified as the antipope John XVI); the famous and learned Pope Sylvester II (Silvester secundus, known as Gerbert of Aurillac, a great mathematician and astronomer); and finally Pope John XVII (Joannes decimus octavus). The text describes in detail their pontificates marked by violent Roman noble factional rioting (led by Crescenzio’s faction), forced exiles, theological disputes, and the renowned cultural transition toward the year one thousand.

Dimensions 45 x 31 cm
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