Leaf Book (Nuremberg Chronicle, pirated, 1497), Shaffer (...

THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE, A PICTORIAL WORLD HISTORY FROM THE CREATION TO 1493.

      A monograph by Ellen Shaffer. With a leaf from the pirated Augsburg Latin Edition of 1497. Pp. [xiv]+62+[2](colophon, blank), 3 pictorial headpieces printed in dull purple, title page vignette printed in red, black & white text illustrations, 1 decorative initial in red & black, endpaper map, the title and first text page printed in red & black, bibliography; f'cap. folio; pictorial teal cloth, lettered in red and decorated in brown, corners a trifle rubbed; printed at the Plantin Press for Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1950. Edition limited to 300 numbered copies, each with an original leaf tipped-in. Hamel 103. *The Liber Chronicarum (commonly known as the Nuremberg Chronicle) was issued by Anton Koberger in a Latin edition in June 1493, followed by a German translation six months later. Compiled by Hartmann Schedel, the text comprised a history of the world from creation up to the date of publication, and was illustrated with numerous woodcuts - a few from blocks designed by Albrecht Durer. The volume contained one of the earliest printed maps of Northern Europe, and the first authentic views of many cities, plus numerous portraits of popes, kings, etc. Three years after the Koberger editions, Johann Schonsperger of Augsburg issued a plagiarised or pirated small folio edition of the German translation, with woodcuts in reduced size, copied roughly from the Koberger blocks. The following year he printed a Latin edition, from which the present leaf (which is quite plain, with no illustrations or rubrication) was taken.