1617 BRAUN, G. / HOGENBERG, F. - Hailbrunna. Reutlinga. Mulhusium [Heilbronn, Reutlingen and Mulhouse/Alsace.]

An original antique copper engraving from the rare 6th part of Latin ed. of G. Braun's and F. Hogenberg's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum", published by A. Hierat in Cologne, 1617/18. 3 city views printed from one plate.
- This view comes from the sixth and last volume of 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum' ("Theatri Praecipuarum Totius Mundi Urbivm Liber Sextus"), published in a much smaller edition than previous volumes, and it is therefore rarer than most of Braun & Hogenberg city views.

HEILBRONN. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "Several are of the opinion that the name of this city is really Heldenbrunn, but others call it Hellbrunn, because of the healthy and healing water that is found here. It grew from a village into a town and was surrounded with walls in the year 1082 or, as claimed by some, in the year 1285 and was granted a municipal charter by Emperor Frederick II."
This is a view from the west over the Neckar of the fortified city centre with the larger-than-life-size church of St Kilian. To the northwest of it on the marketplace is the town hall with the famous ornate clock by Isaak Habrecht of Strasbourg.
The city is surrounded by orchards and vegetable gardens, fields and vineyards. Today very few of Heilbronn's historic buildings are still standing, for the Old Town was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War.

MULHOUSE IN ALSACE. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "As far as this city is concerned, it is very well fortified and protected by nature and its surroundings as well as by thick walls, ditches and similar constructions, in particular there are four moats and over each a bridge that must be crossed before one can enter the city. The soil in the surrounding countryside produces corn and wine and all kinds of fruit in great abundance."
This view from the west from a slightly raised position shows the city behind its four moats. The late Romanesque church of St Stephen dates from the 12th century. In the background the Vosges Mountains can be seen. Mulhouse was once a Free Imperial City, and for a long time was associated with the Old Swiss Confederacy.
REUTLINGEN. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "The position of this city is ideal for various industries, there are numerous mills and a great deal of paper is made and exported far and wide. The city has engaged in many battles with the Counts and Dukes of Württemberg, and although it has often suffered no little damage, it has not only defended and safeguarded it liberties and rights with the aid of its allies and neighbouring cities, but has also soundly defeated the enemy more than once."
This view from the southwest shows a well-fortified city, behind which vineyards and the dominant cone-shaped Achalm Hill with the imperial castle can be seen. Reutlingen, which was granted a municipal charter in 1209, became an important centre of trade and craft industries, including book printing. During a period of great prosperity (13th-14th cent.), the magnificent Gothic church of St Mary was built, a proud symbol of the status or Reutlingen was involved in various armed conflicts during the 16th century.

Braun G. & Hogenberg F. and the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. 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, 1754; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.454.

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.