The “Civitates” of Braun and Hogenberg

The only incunable which with its city and landscape views makes a favorable exception in this respect is Bernhard von Breydenbach's Reise ins Heilige Land (1486). In it figure a number of views of Venice, etc., drawn from nature and cut in wood, from the hand of the Utrecht artist Erhard Reuwich. The work had many editions and was translated into many languages. But after the middle of the 16th century, when the woodcut gave way to the copper engraving, a number of fine city views began to make their appearance. In 1570 the first real atlas, containing 53 mapsheets, saw the light in Antwerp. It was the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius. The work proved a tremendous success. In the very year of its appearance no fewer than four editions were needed, and it was translated into several languages. The maps were engraved by a.o. Frans Hogenberg, descendant of a line of Mechlin artists. After Hogenberg had made himself proficient in the art of engraving, his travels carried him to England and probably also to France. Following this he lived for a long time in Antwerp. After the rule of the Duke of Alba had driven him from his native country, he established himself in Cologne, where he found a rich field of activity. The success of the Ortelius atlas may have caused Hogenberg to work on an atlas of the principal cities as a supplement to the atlas of the world's countries. In Cologne he made the acquaintance of, among others, Georg Bruin or Braun (1541-1622), as well as that of the (like himself) Mechlin-born draughtsman and engraver Simon van den Neuvel (Novellanus), an artist of whose life little is known. Together they worked at the compilation of a city-atlas. Part of the text accompanying the maps came from the hand of Abraham Ortelius, part of the text-that relating to German cities-from the hand of Cornelis Caymox. It is difficult to decide which of the three artists originally took the initiative. A letter of 31 October 1571 from Bruin to Ortelius (Brit. Mus., MS Harl. 7011, fol. 167) speaks of M. Francisci de Civitates liber, from which we might conclude that the initiative came from Frans Hogenberg. It is in this letter that the first reference to the Civitates of Braun-Hogenberg is made

Art · Art history · Atlas (anatomy · Cartography · Descendant · Geography · Visual arts · Woodcut · Historical Geography and Cartography

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