The plan to publish a deluxe illustrated history of the world, unprecedented in scale and visual splendor, was initiated by two wealthy Nuremberg entrepreneurs, Sebald Schreyer (1446–1520) and his brother-in-law Sebastian Kammermeister (1446–1503). They bankrolled the mammoth project, hiring local artists Michael Wolgemut and his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff to oversee the illustrations and scholar Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) to compile the text. Nuremberg printer and publisher Anton Koberger, owner and operator of the largest press in the city as well as several paper mills, was engaged to produce and distribute the book. The work was finished in June 1493, when approximately 1,500 copies in Latin were published; a German edition of approximately 1,000 copies was produced six months later. The book includes more than 1,800 illustrations printed from 645 unique woodblocks, many of which recur in the text to depict various cities or to portray multiple figures from history and the Bible.