1588 BRAUN, G. / HOGENBERG, F. - Schleiswygh. (Schleswig)

Bird's-eye view of Schleswig by Braun and Hogenberg.

TRANSLATION OF CARTOUCHE TEXT: Gottorp. The castle of Gottorp, which came into the possession of the Dukes of Holstein only recently, got its name from the powerful Goths. And Adolph is already foritfying it in no small measure, for this illustrious prince is fond of staying here. Schleswig. It faces the plain between the Scots and the Angles which, although it is small, borders on two seas, and it is said that the sea of the Cimbrian Peninsula is not far from the River Schlei with its many ships. The isthmus is girded here by what is called the rampart of the Danes, a work built by Godfred. And we call this town Schleswig because it is built on a curved inlet of the sea. It was once a great city, with a friendly harbour that received goods of all kinds that the waves of the sea carried here. But it has declined to such an extent that it no longer seeks to be called a city, but only a small town. From the book of the Muses of that generous and distinguished gentleman D. Heinrich Rantzau, Cologne 1584, with imperial privilege.

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Long ago Schleswig was the capital of the whole territory of Cimbria, a big city and wealthy because of its important commercial activities, but now it has lost its former splendour because of the misfortune brought upon it by God. It has a harbour, which is ideally suited to trade. For formerly the trade goods were brought from the Netherlands, England, France and Spain to the Eider Estuary, and then on the Treene to Hollingstedt and from there very easily to Schleswig, and further over the Baltic Sea to the Kingdom of Denmark, to Norway, also Livonia, Russia, Prussia and other German provinces on the Belt."

The ducal coat of arms and the arms of the city of Schleswig at the corners of an equilateral triangle draw our attention down to the little church of Hedeby in the foreground, and thus to the origin of Schleswig and the castle of Gottorp, namely the old commercial metropolis of Haithabu. After its destruction in 1066, its place was taken by Schleswig. The moated castle, residence of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, developed out of a fortress on the Danish frontier wall, the Danewerk (K). The view across the Schlei in cavalier perspective, with north at the top, shows the city overlooked by the tower of St Michael (C). The cathedral of St Peter (D) was begun in 1134 and completed in the 16th century. To the right of it is the former collegiate church of the 13th-century Franciscan monastery, which was converted into a town hall (G) after the Reformation. At this time Schleswig had already lost its preeminent position in trade to Lübeck.

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Reference: Van der Krogt 4, 3912; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.311.

Georg Braun ( 1541 - 1622)

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of Cities of the World) by Hogenberg 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 work of the Antwerp school of cartographers.
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). Correspondingly, the maps show the systematic structure of the towns' building up, with perspective representations of various quarters and individual buildings.
The town is usually placed in the background, while the foreground shows its 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 pages of the Civitates 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 number of towns, only a couple of dozen are located 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, 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 and supplemented by new sections many times. The maps it contained became exemplary; other publishers frequently reproduced them in smaller formats as illustrations for books and maps.

After Franz Hogenberg's death, the atlas's typographic plates remained in Cologne, in Abraham Hogenberg's possession. 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, ownership of town maps with the publisher's imprint of de Wit passed to the publishing house of Covens and Mortier. The multiple reproductions of these 16th-century perspective views and maps by various publishers over the 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 matches the Civitates Orbis Terrarum in size and fullness.

In addition to 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 not only of specialists in the field but of all admirers of fine art.