Städte der Renaissance

by Michael Swift, Angus Konstam

The first volume of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum was published in Cologne in 1572. This great city atlas, edited by Georg Braun and largely engraved by Franz Hogenberg, eventually contained 546 images – bird's-eye views and maps of cities from all over the world. Braun, a cleric who lived in Cologne, was assisted in his project by Abraham Ortelius, whose Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of 1570 was the first true atlas.

For the modern reader the images reproduced in Cities of the Renaissance World provide a remarkable view of the period from Cuzco in South America to Calcutta in India. With some 70 cities illustrated, Cities of the Renaissance World interprets what can be seen in the 16th century maps, how that differs from today's cities, and analyses the other information– from costumes to heraldry– that each of the maps shows.

Genres: History, Art, Maps

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive collection of maps taken from Civitates Orbis Terrarum - a six volume atlas of cities (published in Germany between 1572 and 1617). The original contained 546 engravings of the cities of the "known world." The Swift/Konstam book includes color engravings of 65 cities, mostly in Europe, but also some in Africa (Cairo, Alexandria), Asia (Constantinople, Jerusalem, Calicut, Ormus, Canonot, St. George Del Mina), and the Americas (Cuzco, Tenochtitlan). Some are pretty much just paintings of the cities as seem from outside, while others are more conventional "birds eye view) maps; all include heraldic symbols, illustrations of people in local dress, and often local shipping). The 2008 collection is arranged with each chapter beginning with a history of a specific city and a small version of the map with notes about specific features indicating locations, followed by two facing pages of the original map - which is impressive as this is not a small book - measuring 16" by almost 2 feet. The texts with the original maps are in Latin. This book is beautifully done, but I have two issues with it. First, in about half the chapters, the authors continue with the history past the dates of the maps, which I don't feel really adds anything useful. Also, in a perfect world, I would have liked if they'd included a translation of all of the original map notes. Solid 4 stars.

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who like cartography and Medieval/Renaissance times will love this book. The reprints of the maps from Medieval times a very detailed and fun to poor over. This book also adds extra contextual information for each city, which helps a lot since most of the maps are in other languages such as German and French.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A selection of reproductions with some historical background on each city.