Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of Cities of the World) was the second-oldest printed atlas in world cartography and the first atlas of towns. Its principal creators and authors were the theologian and editor Georg Braun, the most important engraver and publisher Frans Hogenberg, the engraver Simon van den Neuvel, the artist and draftsman Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel, the topographer Jacob van Deventer, and others.
Although published outside the Netherlands, the Civitates is one of the best examples of the Antwerp school of cartography.
Some of the key figures in the school were Abraham Ortelius, Gerardus Mercator, and several other geographers. The Civitates reflects the Flemish engraving style typical of the period's Dutch atlases. In addition, Braun, Hogenberg, and Ortelius's correspondence clearly indicates that they conceived the idea of creating the atlas in Antwerp.

The more than 500 maps in the atlas represent an entire era of town mapping. The atlas was published in six volumes between 1572 and 1617. Braun corresponded extensively with map sellers and scholars from different cities and countries to obtain the originals for his work. In addition, the authors conducted their own investigations.
However, these were not genuine geodetic surveys but detailed on-location drawings of panoramic views of the towns made from some high point. Most of the engravings that decorate the Civitates, from its first volume to its last, were based on drawings by Georg Hoefnagel. Hoefnagel drew images of many towns in France, Italy, England, and Spain.
He and his son Jacob subsequently created representations of Austrian and Hungarian towns for the Civitates. Beyond these overview plans, the atlas also includes more detailed maps based on topographic surveys, particularly those of Jacob van Deventer (15??-1575). Accordingly, the maps show the systematic layout of the towns, with perspective views of various quarters and individual buildings.

The town is usually placed in the background, while the foreground depicts the surrounding countryside and the town's typical inhabitants in detail.
These visual representations of people served not only to augment the maps' contents but also to serve another purpose. Braun and Hogenberg illustrated the pages with figures of local inhabitants to prevent the Turks from using the maps for military purposes, since Islam forbids images of humans.

Of the total towns, only a few are located outside Europe: in Asia, Africa, and South America. This shows limited cartographic knowledge of the world, due to insufficient scientific development and mapmaking practices in the second half of the sixteenth century. At the same time, it is impossible not to be astonished at the huge quantity - by the standards of the time - of material included in the atlas.

Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates was an enormous success. It was republished many times and supplemented with new sections. Its maps became exemplary; other publishers frequently reproduced them in smaller formats as illustrations for books and maps.

After Franz Hogenberg's death, Abraham Hogenberg kept the atlas's typographic plates in Cologne. When Abraham died in 1653, his heirs sold them to Johannes Janssonius, an active and skilled publisher of books and atlases in Amsterdam. In 1657, Janssonius issued the atlas in eight volumes in a completely revised edition, with illustrations arranged by country. A large number of quite new engravings were added to it, while outdated prints were omitted. After Janssonius's death in 1664, his grandson, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, acquired the engravings and used some of them to compile his own atlas, which appeared in 1682.
In 1694, van Waesberge's copper plates and equipment were purchased at auction by the energetic Amsterdam publisher Frederick de Wit, who was well-known for his numerous maps and atlases. De Wit organized a new edition, which was also enriched with new engravings.

After de Wit's time, at the turn of the eighteenth century, the publisher Pieter van der Aa (1659 - 1733) took possession of the atlas's copper plates. He acquired them in Leyden and used them to produce an atlas published in 1729. This publication included a diverse mixture of engravings from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

After van der Aa, Covens and Mortier's publishing house took ownership of town maps bearing the publisher's imprint de Wit. The multiple reproductions of these 16th-century perspective views and maps by various publishers over centuries can be explained by their rich historical and geographical content.
At the same time, no atlas of the world's cities in the history of global cartography equals the Civitates Orbis Terrarum in size and completeness.

Beyond its historical, geographical, and cartographic significance, the Civitates is also of great artistic value. That is why, to this day, the town maps in the atlas have adorned the most exquisite interiors and attracted the attention of specialists in the field and all admirers of fine art.

The first volume of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum was published in 1572. Ultimately, the publication consisted of six folio parts and 363 plates, including 543 town illustrations. Each time a new volume was published, there was a new edition of the previous volumes.
As the cities of Europe (principally), there are views of cities on three additional continents: North America (Mexico and Cuzco, I.58), Africa (Cairo, Tangier, Casablanca; I.55-57) and Asia (Aden, I.53; Calicut, I.54 and Jerusalem several times).

Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590) was one of the greatest engravers of his generation. He engraved most of the plates for Civitates and also produced many included in Ortelius's Theatrum. They relied mainly on existing maps and drawings made by the Antwerp artist.

Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), who had traveled through most of Western Europe. He provided original drawings of Spanish and Italian towns, as well as reworked and improved drawings of towns by other artists. After Joris's death, his son Jakob continued the project.

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum includes in total the work of over 100 artists and topographers.

A German text edition.

- Part I : 1574 (1582). Engraved title-page with German title pasted-on label, 59 engraved plates. London (1582, state 4).

- Part II : 1576. Engraved title-page with German title pasted-on label, 59 engraved plates.

- Part III : 1582. Engraved title-page with German title pasted-on label, 59 engraved plates. Variant R : Dedicated to Emperor Rudolph II and the Electors.

- Part IV : 1590 (1617). Engraved title page with German title pasted-on label, 59 engraved plates. Variant E : Dedicated to Ernst, Archbishop of Cologne. 

Part V : c. 1600. Engraved title page with German title pasted-on label, 69 engraved plates. Variant A. Plate 4 misbound after plate 60.

- Part VI : 1618. Letterpress title-page, engraved title-page with German title pasted-on label, 58 engraved plates. The two-sheet map of Krakow in the first, uncut state.

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The Civitates of Braun, Hogenberg and Novellanus, the three authors cited in the colophon of the 1571 edition, constitute the great collection of city views from the end of the sixteenth century. It closely follows the beautiful atlas of maps published in May 1570 in Antwerp by Abraham Ortelius, the Theatrum orbis terrarum, to which the engraver Frans Hogenberg had collaborated, which had just met with enormous success.

The latter, chased from the Netherlands by religious intolerance, reached Cologne, where he met Canon Georg Braun and his compatriot Simon Van der Neuvel, known as Novellanus, draftsman and engraver. The three men joined forces to publish a collection of bird's-eye views of cities; the first volume appeared in 1572 and included 133 cities worldwide, including Mexico and Istanbul. The publication ultimately included six volumes, with the last appearing in 1617.

They copied engravings already published here and there or collected drawings of various origins, particularly from the artist Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1601), who also contributed to the engraving, whether by hand or by obtaining them from someone else. Braun, assisted by Ortelius, wrote one- to two-page notices presenting the cities in their geographical, historical, political, and economic context. 

Occasionally, a place is represented for its historical or picturesque interest, as the Innsbruck valley plate shows where Emperor Maximilian's miraculous hunting accident occurred.

The book covers Europe extensively, except its easternmost part, which the Turkish invasions made inaccessible and left less urbanized. But it had the immense attraction, for the man of the time, of being extended to other continents. Bird's-eye views dominate and are mixed with plans. They are generally animated by human figures and thus present the local costume.

Reference:  Koeman/Krogt, Atlantes Neerlandici, 4 : 2.1 - 6.