Hartmann Schedel / Wohlgemut / Pleydenwurff / Durer - The...

This original leaf is an incunabulum from 1493, sourced from 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 "Sexta etas mundi," dedicated to the Christian era, and contrasts the monastic and hagiographic devotion of Western Europe with the complex and often violent dynastic and iconoclastic struggles of the Byzantine Empire in the VIII century. The front of the sheet unfolds as a dense hagiographic chronicle enriched by several woodcut portraits. At the top stand out the figures of Saint Gangolph (Gangolfus), a noble Burgundian venerated as a martyr, and the famous duo of friends and champions Amelio and Amico (Amelius and Amicus), united by a deep spiritual and military brotherhood. The central section is dominated by the portrait of Saint Burcardo of Würzburg (Burkardus), the learned Anglo-Saxon bishop who accompanied Saint Boniface in the Christianization of Germany. In the lower part, the text recounts the story of Carlomanno (Carolomanus), brother of Pepin the Short, who renounced temporal power to become a monk at Monte Cassino, accompanied by portraits of the saintly bishops Albino (Albinus episcopus) and Lino (Linus episcopus). The back of the sheet (Folium CLXIII) radically shifts the gaze to the history of the Eastern emperors, bearing in the upper right the woodcut inscription "Linea imperatorum." The column is decorated with the solemn and detailed portraits of the Byzantine rulers of the Isaurian dynasty, closely tied to the events of iconoclasm and to relations with the Church of Rome: from top to bottom stand Constantine V Copronymus (Constantinus quintus), his son Leo IV the Mariner (Leo quartus), the young Constantine VI (Constantinus sextus), and the famous and powerful Empress Irene of Athens (Helena), who assumed full control of the empire. The lower section closes with the biography and portrait of Astolfo (Aistulphus rex), king of the Lombards, described in his warlike incursions into Roman territories before the Franks’ final descent into Italy. Dimensions: 42 x 30 cm It will be shipped by courier.

Estimation:€200

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