This fine beautifully
hand coloured
original antique map a birds-eye
view of
the city of Mechelen
in the Antwerp province of Flanders, Belgium was published by Georg Braun
& Frans Hogenberg for the 1575 atlas of town plans
Civiates Orbis Terrarum Vol II (1572-1612) intended as a
companion to Abraham Ortelius's master Atlas Theatrum
Orbis Terrarum published in 1570.
Franz Hogenberg's
birthplace is illustrated twice. In the view presented
in Volume I the cityscape is dominated by the massive
tower belonging to the cathedral of Sint-Rombout, which
measures almost 100 m in height. Behind the cathedral to
the right lies the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe church built in the
Brabantine late Gothic style. In the present plate
Mechelen is seen in a bird's-eye view from the
northwest. Clearly apparent is the almost circular shape
of the inner city, which has already spread beyond the
bounds of the canal ringing the old city wall. In the
Middle Ages staple rights and the cloth trade brought
Mechelen great prosperity. In 1336 the city passed to
the Duchy of Brabant, later to Burgundy, and developed
into a highly regarded centre of commerce. The collapse
of the cloth industry prompted the development of new
areas of manufacturing, such as cannon and bell
founding. In 1477 Mechelen passed to the Habsburgs and
from 1507 to 1530, under the regency of Margaret of
Austria, was capital of the Habsburg Netherlands. In
1559 Mechelen became an archbishopric and over the
course of the Wars of Religion grew into a centre of the
Counter-Reformation. For some time it was also the seat
of the highest tribunal of the Habsburg Netherlands. (Taschen)
Background of Civitates
Orbis Terrarum
The first volume of the Civitates
Orbis Terrarum was published in Cologne in 1572. The sixth and the final volume
appeared in 1617.
This great city atlas, edited by Georg Braun and largely engraved by Franz
Hogenberg, eventually contained 546 prospects, bird-eye views and map views of
cities from all over the world. Braun (1541-1622), a cleric of Cologne, was the
principal editor of the work, and was greatly assisted in his project by the
close, and continued interest of Abraham Ortelius, whose Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
of 1570 was, as a systematic and comprehensive collection of maps of uniform
style, the first true atlas.
For a variety of reasons town plans were comparatively
latecomers in the long history of cartography. Few
cities in Europe in the middle ages had more than 20,00
inhabitants and even London in the late Elizabethan
period had only 100-150,000 people which in itself was
probably 10 times that of any other English city. The
Nuremberg Chronicle in 1493 included one of the first
town views of Jerusalem, thereafter, for most of the
sixteenth century, German cartographers led the way in
producing town plans in a modern sense. In 1544
Sebastian Munster issued in Basle his Cosmographia
containing roughly sixty-six plans and views, some in
the plan form, but many in the old panorama or birds eye
view. (Ref: Tooley; M&B)
Condition Report:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color: - off white
Age of map color: - Early
Colors used: - Green, blue, red, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 21in x 16in (535mm x 410mm)
Plate size: - 18 1/2in x 13 1/2in (470mm x 345mm)
Margins: - Min 1in (25mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None
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