1575 BRAUN, G. / HOGENBERG, F. - Constantia, vulgo Costnitz Memorabile Sueuie Opp. - S. Galli Opp. et Monasterium Helvetiorum, [Konstanz - Sankt Gallen]

Two bird's-eye panoramic views on one sheet: Constance and Sankt Gallen, by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg. From: 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum, ... Part 2'. Köln, 1575.
CONSTANCE (KONSTANZ). CAPTION: Constantia, commonly known as Konstanz, a remarkable Swabian town. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Constance lies at a very charming place on the Swiss side of Lake Constance. It is surely the most excellent of all the towns on this lake at the present time, and is divided into two groups, the one consisting of noble and knightly persons, and the other of merchants and artisans.
When one of the common people achieves great wealth and would aspire to become a member of the knightly estate, this is not permitted and he must continue in his standing."
This bird's-eye view shows the city from an ideal viewpoint looking out across Lake Constance. In the 16th century it had a population of about 5,000. In the middle of the harbour is the 14th-century building in which the conclave for the election of Pope Martin V took place during the Council of Constance in 1414-1418.
On the right can be seen the originally Romanesque minster dedicated to Our Lady, which was altered in the Gothic style up to the 15th century. For over 1,000 years the see of the former bishopric of Constance was here. The second tall church tower is that of the late Gothic church of St Stephen, which was the town's parish church.
The present-day town hall is in the former guild house of the linen weavers dating from the 16th century, which does not stand out from the mass houses but which is close to St Stephen's church.
This view is made after a single-state woodcut in the Ueberlingen City Archives, printed by Hamma in Constance, 1544.

ST GALLEN. CARTOUCHE: St Gallen, town and monastery in Switzerland: according to the chronicle of Otto of Freising, Book 5, built by St Gallus, who settled in Swabia and in the area of Constance. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "In the beginning the town belonged to a monastery. It lies in the mountains in rather bleak surroundings, but on a charming site with good air and good water and fertile farmland; there is a large population with wealthy and stately burghers who are important producers of linen, and merchants who speak many languages and whose trading activities spread to all the lands of Christendom."
The city of St Gallen is shown in cavalier perspective. The caption S. Lorentz identifies the 15th-century church of St Lawrence. After St Gallen accepted Protestantism under the leadership of the humanist Joachim von Watt (Vadianus) in 1526, this became the main church for the reformed population.
The biggest church shown in the plate marks the monastery district of St Gallen. However, today's Baroque monastery district, with its collegiate church, monastery building and library, stands on the site of the Otmar basilica and St Gallus church that are depicted here. It was constructed in the 18th century as a magnificent residence for the abbots of the Benedictine abbey of St Gallen.
From 1206 the abbots on St Gallen were imperial princes with a seat and a vote in the imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and in 1454 the city became the first so-called associate town in the Old Swiss Confederacy.
This view is made after a woodcut by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder, which appeared in the Schweytzer Chronick of Johannes Stumpff, 1548.

The 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum', or the "Braun & Hogenberg", is a six-volume town atlas and the greatest book of town views and plans ever published: 363 engravings, sometimes beautifully colored. It was one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century. Georg Braun wrote the text accompanying the plans and views on the verso.
A large number of the plates were engraved after the original drawings of Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), who was a professional artist. The first volume was published in Latin in 1572, the sixth volume in 1617. Frans Hogenberg created the tables for volumes I through IV, and Simon van den Neuwel created those for volumes V and VI.
Other contributors were cartographer Daniel Freese, and Heinrich Rantzau. Works by Jacob van Deventer, Sebastian Münster, and Johannes Stumpf were also used. Translations appeared in German and French.

Reference: Van der Krogt 4, 2114; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.179.

Civitates Orbis Terrarum

The 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 nevertheless one of the best examples of the Antwerp school of cartography.
Key figures in the school included Abraham Ortelius, Gerardus Mercator, and several other geographers. The Civitates reflects the Flemish engraving style typical of Dutch atlases of the period. In addition, correspondence among Braun, Hogenberg, and Ortelius clearly indicates that they conceived the atlas in Antwerp.

The atlas contains more than 500 maps and represents an entire era in the history of town mapping. The atlas was published in six volumes between 1572 and 1617. To obtain the originals for his work, Braun corresponded extensively with map sellers and scholars in different cities and countries. The authors also conducted their own investigations.
However, these were not true geodetic surveys, but detailed on-location drawings of panoramic views of the towns made from some high point. Georg Hoefnagel made most of the engravings that decorate the Civitates, from its first volume to its last, from such drawings. 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. In addition to these overview plans, the atlas includes more detailed maps based on topographic surveys, particularly those of Jacob van Deventer (15??-1575). Accordingly, the maps show the systematic structure of the towns' layout, with perspective representations of various quarters and individual buildings.
The town usually appears in the background, while the foreground shows the surrounding countryside and detailed depictions of typical town inhabitants.
These visual representations of people not only augmented the maps' content but also served another purpose. Braun and Hogenberg illustrated the Civitates pages with figures of local inhabitants to prevent Turks from using the maps for military purposes, since Islam forbids images of humans.

Of the total number of towns, only a couple of dozen lie outside Europe, in Asia, Africa, and South America. This shows extremely limited cartographic knowledge of the world, due to the insufficient development of science and mapmaking practices in the second half of the sixth century. At the same time, one cannot help but be astonished by the huge quantity of material included in the atlas by the standards of the time.

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 evidently 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 to compile his own atlas, which appeared in 1682. In 1694, the energetic Amsterdam publisher Frederick de Wit purchased van Waesberge's copper plates and equipment at auction; he was well known for his numerous maps and atlases. De Wit organized a new edition, enriched with new engravings.

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

After van der Aa, the publishing house of Covens and Mortier acquired town maps bearing the publisher's imprint of de Wit. Over the centuries, various publishers reproduced these 16th-century perspective views and maps because of their rich historical and geographical content. At the same time, no atlas of the world's cities in the history of global cartography matches the Civitates Orbis Terrarum in size and fullness.

Beyond its historical, geographical, and cartographic significance, the Civitates is also highly artistic. That is why, to this day, the atlas's town maps have adorned the most exquisite interiors and attracted not only specialists in the field but also admirers of fine art.