Liber Chronicarum. [The Nuremberg Chronicle].

First edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century, from the St. Petersburg library of William Tooke. Imperial folio, bound in three quarter calf over paper-covered boards, morocco spine label lettered in gilt, elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, five gilt-tooled raised bands, rebacked, decorated with 1809 woodcut illustrations by Michael Wolgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop, 320 leaves (of 326, without V, IX, CCLXV, CCXCVII, CCXCVIII and final blank), two double-page maps (map of Europe and colophon laid in with chipped fore-edges), illuminated initial on first text leaf, first full-page woodcut in contemporary color, table's initials in red and blue, red and blue paraphs (additions including Maximilian supplement inserted after CCLXVI. The first edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, printed in both Latin and German, is estimated to have had between 1,400 and 1,500 Latin copies and 700 to 1,000 German copies. Only about 400 Latin and 300 German copies are known to have survived into the 21st century. The publication history of the Nuremberg Chronicle is perhaps the best documented of any book printed in this period: the contracts between Schedel and his partners Schreyer and Kammermaister, and between Schedel and the artists, all survive in the Nuremberg Stadtsbibliothek, as do detailed manuscript exemplars of both the Latin and the German editions. The Nuremberg Chronicle includes two double-page maps: a world map (Shirley 19) based on Mela's Cosmographia (1482), and a map of northern and central Europe by Hieronymus Munzer (1437--1508) after Nicolas Khyrpffs. The world map is one of only three 15th-century maps showing Portuguese knowledge of the Gulf of Guinea of about 1470. The map of Europe is closely associated with Nicolas of Cusa's Eichstatt map, with which it is thought to share a common manuscript source of c.1439--54. It is therefore claimed to be the first modern map of this region to appear in print. Although published later than the map of Germany in the 1482 Ulm Ptolemy, it was constructed earlier (Campbell, The Earliest Printed Maps, 1472--1500, 1987). Provenance: early Latin inscriptions on title-page -- John (18th-century inscription and pen trials on blank after Maximilian supplement) -- William Tooke (1744--1820; inscription on title-page dated 1772) -- Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913--1994; leather label); by descent. William Tooke (1744--1820) was a British historian of Russia, living in St. Petersburg for periods of his life while researching and writing his works. The present copy formed part of his library at St. Petersburg and is dated 1772. With the binding very good condition, text block near fine with the map of Europe and colophon laid in with chipped fore-edges and 320 leaves (of 326, without V, IX, CCLXV, CCXCVII, CCXCVIII and final blank). A very nice example of this landmark work in the history or printing with noted provenance.