Sebastian Schedel

Sebastian Schedel was a German painter and illustrator best known for his contributions to the Hortus Eystettensis. A few of the original drawings for the Hortus Eystettensis are preserved at Kew in a codex called Schedel’s Calendarium.

Family Schedel

The name Schedel was a respected one in Germany in the 15th century. Sebastian was the great-grandson of Hartmann Schedel, German historian, physician, humanist, and one of the first cartographers to make use of the printing press. He was also the grandson of Sebastian Schedel and Barbara Pfinzing, and son of Melchior Schedel. Melchior was little interested in his grandfather's library, and ignored his express will that the books be kept together. He sold the library for 500 guilders in 1552 to the Augsburg merchant Johann Jakob Fugger. Fugger, in need of money, sold it two decades later to the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V.