Hartmann Schedel

Opening from the Nuremberg Chronicle showing Erfurt

Hartmann Schedel (February 13, 1440 – November 28, 1514), was a German physician, humanist and historian, one of the first cartographers to make use of the printing press. He was born in Nuremberg. Matheolus Perusinus served as his tutor.

Schedel is best known for his writing the text for the Nuremberg Chronicle, known to Germans as Schedel's World Chronicle, published in 1493 in Nuremberg. This was probably a commission from Anton Koberger, as much of the point of the work was its lavish illustrations. The Chronicle is therefore an incunabulum. Many of the maps in his Nuremberg Chronicle illustrated cities and countries for the first time ever, although not necessarily based on much knowledge.

1493 Woodcut engraving depicting the City of Rhodes, by Hartmann Schedel

With the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1447, it became feasible to print books and maps for a larger customer basis. Books had previously been rare and very expensive, due to them having to be handwritten.

He was also a notable collector of books, art and old master prints. An album he had bound in 1504, which once contained five engravings by Jacopo de' Barberi, provides important evidence for dating de' Barbari's work.

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Hartmann Schedel

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