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Manuscript copies of ‘universal chronicles’ were popular in the Middle Ages as histories of the world from the time of the Creation (which was then believed to be five or six thousand years before the birth of Christ). Rolevinck’s work was the first universal history to avail of the new technology of printing with moveable type. This printed book went through more than 30 editions between its first publication in 1474 and his death in 1502. The copy shown here is extensively annotated throughout in French with several large manicules, or pointing hands, which were intended to mark significant passages in the text.

Citation:
Werner Rolevinck, Fasciculus temporum (Lyon, 1483),
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/586