Genealogical Page; published in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel (1493): Art, History and Details

Genealogical Page; published in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel (1493) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Michael Wolgemut (German, 1434–1519); Wilhelm Playdenwurff (German, 1494).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

After Johann Gutenberg's Bible (1453-56), the Nuremberg Chronicle is the most famous 15th-century publication and an early bestseller, documenting history from the creation of the world to the voyages of discovery in the 1490s. The book's large scale (18.11 x 12.59 x 3.5 inches), unprecedented number of illustrations (1,809 woodcuts printed from 645 woodblocks), and great length (over 600 pages) made it the most ambitious printed publication since the invention of movable type just a few decades earlier. Wolgemut and Pleydenwurff illustrated the text and provided complete manuscript layouts, an unusual procedure at the time but nonetheless successful in closely integrating the images and text, producing an extraordinarily cohesive unit.

Object facts

• Title: Genealogical Page; published in the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel
• Date: 1493
• Creator attribution: Michael Wolgemut (German, 1434–1519); Wilhelm Playdenwurff (German, 1494)
• Culture: Germany
• Type: Print
• Technique: woodcut
• Collection: PR - Woodcut
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1942.540

Collection credit

Gift of Lillian Hammer

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.