The Digital Nuremberg Chronicle: HADAVAS (con't.)

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Why is the Chronicle interesting and how can it be used in class?
The Chronicle is most famous for its numerous illustrations and for the sophisticated arrangement of these images vis-à-vis its text. No other printed book from this period (pre-1500) has as many illustrations as the Chronicle. Its eclectic text, 90% of which was compiled by the bibliophilistic Schedel from his large library (the other 10% seems to be Schedel’s own idiosyncratic Latin prose), is a testament to over 1500 years of Latinity (encompassing Classical, Biblical, Ecclesiastical, Medieval and Neo-Latin).

Long used by art historians, the challenges of the work’s original Latin, filled with the varying stylistic idioms of hundreds of different authors from diverse backgrounds and civilizations, and compounded by such ‘mechanical’ features as the typeface (Antiqua Rotunda) and the abbreviations of many of the words, have long proved a major hindrance to the study of the Chronicle’s actual text. My goal in this digital edition has been to facilitate the reading of the Latin text as much as possible (and to provide non-Latinists access to a text that hitherto has been regarded as largely unapproachable).

For classicists, therefore, the Chronicle is, above all, a Latin text (albeit a very unusual one!). I have used it in advanced Latin classes which focus on Medieval Latin texts and paleography, since in many ways it represents the end of the medieval world and the beginning of the Renaissance (there is, for example, a peculiar tension sometimes expressed in the text between a traditional, theological perspective and the new rationalism empowered by the rediscovery of classical thought).

Those of us who teach reception history and the nachleben of classical mythology will find many parts of the text interesting. For example, the sections on Greek and Roman gods, goddesses, and heroes are filled with euhemerized retellings of these individuals’ lives in an attempt to ‘explain’ pagan religion (e.g., folio XXVIIIr).

Other sections on famous historical figures (writers, philosophers, politicians, generals, etc.) of the ancient world are valuable for learning how educated individuals in late fifteenth-century Europe viewed such people (e.g., Sappho, Sophocles, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Ovid, Nero, etc.).

Structured around the Bible for much of its historical narrative, the Chronicle also offers a wealth of information on Old and New Testament figures and history, as well as the history of early Christianity within the context of the Roman Empire (e.g., there are fascinating mini-biographies of numerous martyrs accompanied by equally interesting portraits).

Where to start:

The Digital Nuremberg Chronicle

For an introduction to the Chronicle, click on ‘About this Book’ and choose any of the various sub-links (perhaps the best place to begin is with ‘A Guided Tour of the Nuremberg Chronicle’).

To ‘read’ the actual book, click on ‘Book Con tents’. Four subcategories will appear, of which the first, ‘Index’, is still under construction. Clicking on the second category, ‘Folios’, allows one access to any of the nearly six hundred pages of the Chronicle, two pages at a time (i.e., as if one were reading an open book). Clicking on any of the two-page listings will immediately take one to those pages in the book. From this point, one can utilize the tool bar. Clicking on ‘Previous’ will take you to the preceding pages while ‘Next’ allows one to turn to the following pages. To view an individual page in greater detail, click either ‘Left Page (closer view)’ or ‘Right Page (closer view)’. Doing this allows one to view the selected page as an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file, which in turn provides the user with several additional options (e.g., the ability to magnify the page). Clicking on the age specific ‘Index’ link in the middle of the tool bar will take one to a page listing all the folios in that particular age. To return to the main page of the site, click on any part of the banner ‘MORSE LIBRARY, BELOIT COLLEGE / Nuremberg Chronicle’ at the top of the page.

Clicking on the third category under ‘Book Contents’, ‘Ages’, provides a listing of the Chronicle’s ‘chapters’: the seven historical periods into which the world was divided by medieval historiographers along with an eclectic geographical collection entitled ‘Addenda’. Clicking on any of these seven ages or the ‘Addenda’ will take one to a listing of all the folios contained under that heading.

Clicking on the fourth category under ‘Book Contents’, ‘Images’, takes one to a page containing six thematically organized subcategories: ‘Old Testament’, ‘New Testament’, ‘Martyrs’, ‘People’, ‘Cities, Provinces, Countries, and Kingdoms’, and ‘Miscellaneous’. Designed primarily for art historians, these subcategories contain approximately two hundred individual links to the Chronicle’s most interesting (i.e., beautiful, striking, unusual, puzzling) images. Each one of these images can be viewed in two sizes: medium (‘View’) or large (‘Full Size’). In addition, each image will remain on the desktop in its own window. For those interested in late-medieval/early-renaissance images of their favorite gods, heroes, generals, politicians, philosophers, and writers from Greece and Rome, click on ‘People’ and then ‘Classical’.

Future Updates:
Beloit’s copy of the Chronicle is not complete (it is missing roughly 10% of its pages). The Digital Nuremberg Chronicle, however, will soon be complete thanks to Lawrence University, which possesses a complete (though uncolored) copy and which has generously allowed me to digitally photograph the pages missing from Beloit’s edition and incorporate them into the on-line version.

The Chronicle begins with a twenty-page index (in many ways it was meant to be used as an encyclopedia), with entries ranging from Aaron (brother of Moses) to Zoroaster (= Zarathustra) and including such topics as the Antichrist, Bohemia, and Earthquakes in Constantinople. The digital facsimile will include this index as a hyper-linked text that will allow a user, by clicking on the link, to instantly reach the page on which the topic appears.

There will be a section on medieval spellings, unusual vocabulary, and the extensive use of abbreviations. The latter are so numerous that they often make it difficult for students (and even many faculty!) to figure out what the actual words are.

I am currently editing the only known English translation of the Chronicle (to learn more about this translation, click on the link ‘English Translation’). This translation will be included on the site (at some unknown future date!) in a manner that will allow the user to view simultaneously both the original page and the English translation.

Software Requirements:
Adobe Acrobat Reader; this free software can be downloaded