Do Roman Catholics KnOw About the Nuremburg Chronicles?

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Do RCs KnOw about

the

L iber chronicarum

(Nuremberg Chronicle), 1493\

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http://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/inside/contents/folios.htm

The Nuremberg Chronicle, despite lacking an actual title (What's in a Name?), is one of the best

documented early printed books. The links to this section of the web site contain a briefoverview of the men involved in its creation (Author, Patrons and Publishers, Artists, Printer) as

well as very short introductions to its genre (Medieval World Histories) and its various editions

(Latin and German Editions, A Pirated Copy?). A textual and visual survey of the Chronicle's

design and layout features, as well as a selection of its contents, is also provided (A Guided Tour

of theNuremberg Chronicle). All copies of the Chronicleare, in a sense, unique. Beloit's

colored copy, for example, has interesting evidence of its different owners' 'relationship' to their

book(Beloit's Copy of theNuremberg Chronicle). Finally, for those who wish to explore the

Chronicle further, there is a brief Annotated Bibliography.

~~~

This epic history, published a year after Columbus's first voyage, presents the world through the

lens of European Christians. In the account of the "third age"from the birth of Abraham to the

reign of the biblical King Davidthe text lists furnishings of the Tabernacle used in the

Wilderness. Prescribed by God in chapter 25 of the Book of Exodus, they include the golden Ark

of the Covenant, which contained the tablets of the Law. The left-hand image of the Ark

conforms to the twelfth-century description of Rabbi Salomonis (Solomon ben Isaac of Troyes),

known as Rashi, the renowned commentator on the Bible and Talmud; the second depiction, at

right, is based on Catholic writings. Below is the table of the Shewbread. On the right plate is the

seven-branched menorah of pure gold, the primary symbol of Judaism in the ancient and

medieval worlds.

NUREMBERG CHRONICLE, or Hartmann Schedels Registrum hujus operis libri cronicarum

(Nuremberg, 1493) D17.S315 149

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Woodcut of a fur-coated man with the head of a dog

File:Nuremberg chroniclesStrange people

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One-legged man with umbrella foot

File:Nuremberg chronicles - Strange People - Umbrella Foot (XIIr).jp

St. Augustine mentions the "Skiopodes" in The City of God, Book 16 in

the 8th chapter entitled, " Whether Certain Monstrous Races of M en

Are Derived From the Stock of Adam or Noah' s Sons."

Reference to the legend continued into the Middle Ages, for example

with Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae.

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Umbrella Foot, Cyclops, Siamese Twins, Headless, Dog Headed Man

Illustrations from the Nuremberg chronicles - Strange PeopleHeadless by

Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514)

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Six-armed creature Creature with elongated bottom lip

Cyclops: a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his

forehead

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Siamese Twins joined at the hip

Wolfman - with 2 sets of womens breasts and birds feet