World Map — Secunda Etas Mundi — Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — map side

World Map — Secunda Etas Mundi — Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — reverse

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Upper left of the map, with Japheth and the printed heading

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Upper right of the map, with Shem and the folio number

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Lower right of the map, with Ham and a wind head

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Hand-coloured figures along the left of the map, upper detail

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Hand-coloured figures along the left of the map, lower detail

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Reverse, detail of the left-hand column of figures

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Reverse, lower detail of the left-hand column of figures

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Reverse, upper detail of the right-hand column of figures

Hartmann Schedel, 1493 — Reverse, lower detail of the right-hand column of figures

World Map — Secunda Etas Mundi — Hartmann Schedel, 1493

€14,000

Cartographer: Hartmann Schedel
Date: 1493
Publication: Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle) · Nuremberg, Anton Koberger
Edition: First Latin edition
Folio: XII verso–XIII recto
Subject: World
Medium: Woodcut with original hand colouring
Availability: Available by enquiry
Condition: Very good condition, with small repairs to the stitch holes.
Dimensions: 44.5 × 61 cm

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About this piece

Printed at Nuremberg by Anton Koberger in 1493, Secunda Etas Mundi is the double-page world map from the first Latin edition of Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum, better known as the Nuremberg Chronicle. Published the year after Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas, the woodcut still sets out the inhabited world according to Ptolemaic geography. Europe, Asia and Africa gather around the Mediterranean, while Africa and Asia enclose the Indian Ocean.

Twelve wind heads surround the map. At the corners are Japheth, Shem and Ham, the sons of Noah, who connect the geography to the Chronicle’s account of how the world was peopled after the Flood. A column of extraordinary figures at the left gives a glimpse of what medieval readers imagined might lie beyond the familiar world. Further hand-coloured figures appear alongside the Latin letterpress on the reverse.

This impression retains its original hand colouring. Deep blue picks out the garments of Japheth and Ham, while a warm red line runs around the map. The close-ups show the fine black lines of the woodcut, from the waves on the enclosed seas to the contours of mountains and rivers.

The middle fold is visible across the two-page spread. The photographs show the complete sheet on both sides, with close-ups of the colouring, the printed folio number and the illustrated margins.

Condition: Very good condition, with small repairs to the stitch holes. Dimensions: 44.5 × 61 cm