Die Bibliothek Hartmann Schedels

Abstract The library of the learned Nuremberg physician Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) is considered to be the largest and best preserved German private library of the late 15 th century. Given the breadth of the fields of knowledge represented in Schedel’s books and the library’s significance for the reception of humanism in Germany and the genesis of Schedel’s ›World Chronicle‹ of 1493, there is more than sufficient justification for a project aimed at a digital or analogue reconstruction of the collection. However, the heterogeneous material (manuscripts, incunabula, books printed in the 16 th century and prints) and the complex later history of the collection pose specific challenges for such a reconstruction.