Single Leaf of Hartman Schedel's Book – The Murder of the Child Simon of Trento, 1493

Single leaf of Hartman Schedel's book, Weltchronik (Nuremberg Chronicle), Nuremberg, 1493. Illustration of Jews torturing the child Simon of Trento.
On March 23 1475 a Christian two and a half years old child by the name of Simon disappeared from his parents home in Trento in north Italy; three days later, on the eve of Good Friday (the day of Jesus Christ's crucifixion), his body was found near the home (or in its cellar or its well) of a Jew who was a resident of the city, a money lender by the name of Shmuel.
After the body was found the Bishop announced that all of Trento Jewish community, including a few converted Jews, are guilty of the murder of the child. All the Jews of the city were arrested, tortured and some executed by fire or decapitated. Simon was declared a saint by the pope, and his memory was mentioned every year in the month of March, until his status a saint was cancelled in 1965.
40.5 cm. Good condition. Stains, mainly to margins. Tear with omission to upper right margins.