1577 BRAUN, G. / HOGENBERG, F. - Highly desirable early view of Sevilla, Cadiz, and Malaga

Highly desirable early view of Sevilla, Cadiz, and Malaga, with the Roman and Moorish citadels on the hills in the background.


"In the upper part, Sevilla is shown from the southeast, seen at a distance from the far side of the Guadalquivir, from land now occupied by the Barrio de Triana.
Visible on the right side of the city is the Castillo, which has caught on fire; the fortress, with its many towers, was then the seat of the Inquisition.

On the left bank of the river, opposite the Castillo, lies the Torre del Oro. Further left is the Alcazar, whose originally Almohad architecture was remodeled in the Mudéjar style in the 14th century. Rising above the city center is the Gothic cathedral (Yglesia maior), which houses the tomb of Columbus.

The tall bell tower, called the "Giralda", was formerly a minaret and is today one of the city's landmarks. Seville profited greatly from trade with the New World. From 1537, fleets laden with wine, salt, corn, pottery and silk sailed regularly between the continents" (Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.50.)

CADIZ : Cadiz is shown in cavalier perspective. Vestiges of the Moorish settlement that flourished here from the 8th to the 13th century can be seen in the center of the fortified town: the large church, now occupied by the 18th-century cathedral, and the fortress. Particular emphasis is placed upon the fishing industry, from which the town lived before it became a major center of trade. In the 16th century, Cadiz served as the "gateway to America": Columbus embarked upon his second and fourth expeditions from Cadiz harbor. The town later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet - and thereby found itself at the center of Spain's military activities. From 1537 onwards, maritime trade with the New World assumed a more organized form, with a treasure fleet sailing annually between Cadiz, Seville and the colonies. Cadiz's most important export was salt." (Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.50.)

MALAGA : "The illustration focuses in particular upon the harbor and thus upon the town's associated importance as a center of trade. Malaga's occupation by the Moors, which lasted over 700 years and ended only in 1487, in the wake of the Reconquista by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, is reflected in the large 11th-century Moorish fortress complex." (Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.50.)

From volume one of the greatest publication in this genre!. The Civitates was compiled and written by George Braun, Canon of Cologne Cathedral. Braun gathered together vast amounts of information and draft plans to produce over 500 city views/maps published in six parts between 1572 and 1617.

Most of these engravings were made by Simon Novellanus and Frans Hogenberg, many after drawings by Joris Hoefnagel.

Reference: Koeman (1967-70) B & H 1-5, NMM III, i, 459 (1573-1618 ed.), Introduction', in: G. Braun and F. Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum (Amsterdam: 1965). (2)

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.