Leaf from the Liber Chronicarum: das Buch der Croniken und Geschichten, also known as the Nuremberg Chronicle. Woodcut at center of the leaf depicting Jews being burned at the stake. Woodcut made by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurf. Printed by Anton Koberger, [1445-1513]. Nuremberg, 1493. Leaf ccxx from the book. Incunabulum.
Leaf measures 42.5×30.5 cm.; the picture measures 11.5×15.5 cm. Latin.
This book was printed just a few years after the invention of the printing press and a year after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Columbus’s discovery of America. A depiction of Jews being burned at the stake in sanctification of G-d’s name when they refused to covert from their faith. The picture reflects Jewish life at the time and was not a depiction of distant Jewish history.
Very fine condition.