ABCD Books in Camden, Maine - Used, Out-of-Print and Rare Books

Above, the city of Nuremberg as depicted in the Nuremberg Chronicle, a history of the world published in 1493. Right, a detail from a page of clerical biographies. This Chronicle is in Middle High German; the same publisher also printed a version in Latin.

ONE OF THE GREAT DELIGHTS of being a rare book dealer is that, once in a while, you get to tell somebody they have got something rare.

We were looking at books headed for an estate sale, and to our amazement discovered a 500-year-old copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle. With more than 1,800 woodcut illustrations, it relates in 600 pages the history of the world beginning with Genesis. It was compiled by medieval physician Hartmann Schedel and produced by Anton Koberger, a Nuremberg publisher considered at the time to be one of the most important in Europe. He printed a Latin version as well as one in Middle High German, a total of 2,500 copies. There are only 1,200 known extant copies.

Many of the illustrations, which have been hand-colored, are recycled throughout the text. For example, 69 cities were depicted but only a total of 22 images were used -- many other cities look very much like Nuremberg! Other illustrations show biblical and classical scenes, as well as portraits of real and legendary personages, and genealogies.

The book's owner, who remains anonymous, said that the book had probably been bought before he was born. While he was not ready to sell the book, he granted permission to have it displayed it at the Camden Public Library for two and a half weeks in February 2002.