Nuremberg Chronicle — Folio CLXVII (167), 1493 - Hartmann Schedel

An original hand-coloured leaf from the 1493 Latin edition of Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle, printed by Anton Koberger. Folio CLXVII moves from the history of the Franks and Lombards on one side to the succession of popes and a sign in the night sky on the other. The woodcuts were produced by the Nuremberg workshop of Michael Wohlgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.

On the recto, four portraits punctuate the Latin text. Charles, king of the Franks, appears with Roland and Tassilo of Bavaria. The fourth figure is Adalgis, son of the Lombard king Desiderius. The Chronicle recalls his flight after the siege of Pavia and his attempt to recover his father’s kingdom. Seen together, the portraits bring the competing families and rulers of the period onto a single page.

Turn the leaf over and the woodcuts change register. Leo III, Stephen IV and Paschal appear in a papal succession, while a comet marks the year of Leo’s death. The Chronicle records that some readers of such signs saw it as an omen. The sheet measures 44 × 30.6 cm and is in good condition, with a stain in the upper blank margin.