Unknown: The Schembart book (1540)

(University of California, Los Angeles, USA)

An illustrated page made by an unknown German artist. This is part of a copy of the Schembart book, a record or chronicle of the so-called Schembartlauf, a carnival parade, in Nuremberg. This carnival was held each shrove Tuesday from 1449 to 1539. According to local legend, the right to hold the carnival parade was earned because the the butchers’s guild of Nuremberg remained loyal to holy Roman emperor Charles IV during a revolt of Nuremberg. The parade itself consisted of dancers, runners and floats. The runners (Läufer) had masks (Schembart means 'hiding beard'), costumes and boughs of leaves that look like artichokes–known as Lebensrute–that concealed fireworks. Local politicians and people were usually ridiculed during the parade. The parade was abolished in 1539 when the local Lutheran minister Osiander was shown on a float with a backgammon surrounded by fools and devils - this float is shown on the page. Page from 1540.