Constantinople

Hartmann Schedel, 1493.  Excellent. 9.5 x 9 inches on full sheet 17 x 12 inches + good margins.

$750.

German edition of this incunable woodcut view of Constantinople. This is perhaps the least reproduced of the three views of Constantinople in the Nuremberg Chronicle, after the double-page view and the semi-imaginary half-page view. The present view, occupying most of a single page, depicts Constantinople with a fire at Aya Sophia mosque. During the Roman Empire there had been a Christian church on the same site, but in 404 it burned. Theodosius II built it again in 415, but in 532 it was again destroyed by fire.