Cities frozen in time: The evolution of city iconography in the early modern era
By Stephan Füssel. Excerpt from the book 'Cities of the World'
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"Kindly and most esteemed reader, we hereby place on the market the next book of the most noble cities of the entire world, of which I hope that it will please you very much, because the first book was received with such great pleasure and was so highly sought-after that not a single copy still remains nor is available to buy." With this jubilant preface – a reference to the huge commercial success of the first Latin (1572), German (1574) and French (1575) editions of the Civitates orbis terrarum – author and editor Georg Braun (1541–1622) opens the 1576 German-language edition of Volume II of his unique atlas of the cities of the world. Since the countless different editions of the Civitates are today hard to tell apart – Volume 1 passed through no less than eight Latin editions alone – and many of the city views were also sold as individual prints, it is not to be wondered that Braun should adopt such a euphoric tone in his introductory remarks.
Braun announces that he is willing to incorporate additional towns and cities and invites his readers to respond in a positively "interactive" manner, namely by sending him their suggestions for cities they would like to see included in the future: "Should anyone not find their home town or native city in either of these first two books, however, I would kindly invite them to draw it from life and send it to me. Then I will have it faithfully copied by the skilled Franz Hogenberg and put it in the 1st or 2nd book or keep it for the 3rd book." Braun was therefore planning both expanded new editions and complete new volumes.
The structure of Georg Braun's commentaries
In the introduction to the second volume, Braun expresses his regret that he has been obliged to keep the city commentaries so short and to leave out a great deal that would normally belong to "a full description". It would surely be no exaggeration – thus Braun – to say that "a separate book" could have been written about each city. Naturally he does not have enough space for this, but all the information about a particular city recorded "in trusted histories" or "provided to him in writing by reliable gentlemen and friends" he has reported as faithfully as possible. The commentaries allow us to reconstruct relatively accurately Braun's library and the breadth of his reading. Braun refers fairly frequently to his sources and in not a few cases gives details of the edition he has consulted, the volume and even the chapter. At the top of the list stand the Bible and the church fathers, in particular St Augustine, followed by Greek and Roman historians, statesmen and geographers. The information derived from these classical sources not infrequently eclipses facts about the 16th-century present; particularly striking is the absence, in most cases, of a description of the city of the day, with its major buildings, art treasures etc., oriented towards its appearance in the engraving. Braun provides contemporary details only about a city's economic strength, the constitution of its municipal government, its schools and universities and the names and biographies of famous individuals, and occasionally about its main areas of trade and matters relating to jurisdiction and customs duty, etc.
The selection is thoroughly subjective. In a number of cases, for example, we are offered only a history of the university, in others simply a history of local commerce or a description of a city's favourable location on a natural harbour. As a general rule, Braun begins with a complex etymology of the name of the town or city, in a manner that reads more like an accumulation of scholarly opinions than as an informative summary. Military history is also in some cases discussed at great length, usually in conjunction with a reference to a city's fortifications, ramparts etc.
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Page [1] [2] [3]
"Kindly and most esteemed reader, we hereby place on the market the next book of the most noble cities of the entire world, of which I hope that it will please you very much, because the first book was received with such great pleasure and was so highly sought-after that not a single copy still remains nor is available to buy." With this jubilant preface – a reference to the huge commercial success of the first Latin (1572), German (1574) and French (1575) editions of the Civitates orbis terrarum – author and editor Georg Braun (1541–1622) opens the 1576 German-language edition of Volume II of his unique atlas of the cities of the world. Since the countless different editions of the Civitates are today hard to tell apart – Volume 1 passed through no less than eight Latin editions alone – and many of the city views were also sold as individual prints, it is not to be wondered that Braun should adopt such a euphoric tone in his introductory remarks.
Braun announces that he is willing to incorporate additional towns and cities and invites his readers to respond in a positively "interactive" manner, namely by sending him their suggestions for cities they would like to see included in the future: "Should anyone not find their home town or native city in either of these first two books, however, I would kindly invite them to draw it from life and send it to me. Then I will have it faithfully copied by the skilled Franz Hogenberg and put it in the 1st or 2nd book or keep it for the 3rd book." Braun was therefore planning both expanded new editions and complete new volumes.
The structure of Georg Braun's commentaries
In the introduction to the second volume, Braun expresses his regret that he has been obliged to keep the city commentaries so short and to leave out a great deal that would normally belong to "a full description". It would surely be no exaggeration – thus Braun – to say that "a separate book" could have been written about each city. Naturally he does not have enough space for this, but all the information about a particular city recorded "in trusted histories" or "provided to him in writing by reliable gentlemen and friends" he has reported as faithfully as possible. The commentaries allow us to reconstruct relatively accurately Braun's library and the breadth of his reading. Braun refers fairly frequently to his sources and in not a few cases gives details of the edition he has consulted, the volume and even the chapter. At the top of the list stand the Bible and the church fathers, in particular St Augustine, followed by Greek and Roman historians, statesmen and geographers. The information derived from these classical sources not infrequently eclipses facts about the 16th-century present; particularly striking is the absence, in most cases, of a description of the city of the day, with its major buildings, art treasures etc., oriented towards its appearance in the engraving. Braun provides contemporary details only about a city's economic strength, the constitution of its municipal government, its schools and universities and the names and biographies of famous individuals, and occasionally about its main areas of trade and matters relating to jurisdiction and customs duty, etc.
The selection is thoroughly subjective. In a number of cases, for example, we are offered only a history of the university, in others simply a history of local commerce or a description of a city's favourable location on a natural harbour. As a general rule, Braun begins with a complex etymology of the name of the town or city, in a manner that reads more like an accumulation of scholarly opinions than as an informative summary. Military history is also in some cases discussed at great length, usually in conjunction with a reference to a city's fortifications, ramparts etc.
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Braun/Hogenberg, Cities of the World
Hardcover, 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in.), 520 pages
$ 200.00
$ 200.00
The complete reprint of all 363 color plates from Braun and Hogenberg's survey of town maps, city views, and plans of Europe, Africa, Asia and Central America. First published in Cologne 1572-1617. Printed from a rare and superbly preserved original set of six volumes, belonging to the Historische Museum in Frankfurt
Navale battle; detail from the view of Wismar, Germany
Tuna fishing near Cadiz; detail from the view of Cadiz, Spain