SCHEDEL, Hartmann
(b. 1440, Nürnberg, d. 1514, Nürnberg)

Nuremberg Chronicle, Sheet 12: Other Nations

1493
Woodcut, folio
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich

The Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel is divided into a history of the world in seven ages of the world. The second age of the world uses the descriptions of St Augustine (354 - 430), the Roman Father of the Church and founder of the monastic order, and the classical author Pliny (23/24 -79) and describes the peculiar people who apparently lived in India. In addition to cephalopods and curious hybrids, the woodcuts mainly show people lacking limbs. Scarcely a decade later the comical notions Europeans had about Indian nations would be refuted by the discovery of the sea route to India.




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