The living page - marginal notations in the Nuremberg Chronicle

Earlier this week, I went to the reading room of the university library of the University of Southern Denmark to research some of their liturgical fragments. As I was picking up the items I had ordered, I noticed that their copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle was available and I decided to have yet another look through this magnificent historiography. I have leafed through this book several times, but I'm always happy to return to it and notice new details in its beautiful woodcuts. One of the aspects I particularly enjoy about this volume is its many marginal notations. The book belongs to a collection which the university library purchased from Herlufsholm School in Sjælland in 1968, and therefore this volume of the Nuremberg Chronicle has been part of the education of many young Danish boys in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Leafing through these centuries-old pages consequently brings many reminds that these pages are living pages, in that they were actively used and enscribed with notes, presumably to make it easier to find some crucial passage in the preparation for a test or an exam.

The Nuremberg Chronicle

Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek RARA M 38

The reading room of Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek

This time I was particularly drawn to this page, which describes the geography and zoology of various parts of the world in a mixture of classical Roman learning and biblical history. As can be seen, this page appears to have held many important pieces of information for a young student, as he (and it must have been a he since Herlufsholm was an all boys school) has taken extensive notes concerning various geographical locations, such as Africa, Ethiopia and Pentapolis (the five North African Roman cities Apollonia, Cyrene, Ptolemais, Taucheira and Berenice). As can be seen in the notation pointing out Africa, the student has also noted the name of Noah's son Cham, traditionally believed to be the one repopulating the African continent after the flood.

 These notations are important pieces of evidence to the reception history of the Nuremberg Chronicle in a specific educational environment, and these notations might be valuable clues into the education at Herlufsholm in the Early Modern Period. And most importantly, they remind us - if any reminder were needed - that old, carefully curated books also once were new and actively used, just as we now make notes in the books of our curricula and reading lists.