Case 5
- Nuremberg and Augsburg
Bible. Latin Vulgate. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493.
Anton Koberger was a printer with considerable funds whose large printing establishment was able to produce substantial folios with hundreds of pages. He continued printing into the early part of the sixteenth century – the catalogue of his firm over the years 1473 to 1513 enumerates more than 200 titles, most of them large folio volumes.
His 1493 Vulgate Bible displayed here is one of four folio volumes and contains the text of Isaiah to II Maccabees. The central text contains the commentary or postilla of Nicholas of Lyra (ca. 1270-1349), a member of the Franciscan order and teacher at the Sorbonne.
Hartmann Schedel. Liber chronicarum. Augsburg: Johann Schönsperger, 1497. Single leaf.
A characteristic feature of the Augsburg presses was their early and successful attempt to amalgamate letterpress and illustration, or rather to continue the tradition of the illuminated manuscript in the new medium of print.
This leaf is from the Augsberg edition of Liber chronicarum – a pirated abridgement of Koberger’s original Nuremberg printing of 1493. The text is from the Sixth Age and includes the Lives of the Popes.
The printer is Johann Schönsperger (1455-1521), who produced nearly 200 titles including several reprints (such as this edition) and continued printing into the sixteenth century.
