Views of Oxford & Windsor Castle from Civitates Orbis Terrarum 

Augsburg, 1575, Oblong Folio, full bright contemporary colour, in fine condition, framed.

“The Civitates orbis terrarum or the ‘Braun & Hogenberg’ is the most famous of the early town atlases. Like Ortelius’s Theatrum, one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century. Although it had no comparable predecessor, it immediately answered a great public demand because social, political and economic life at that time was concentrated in cities. Apart from that the pictorial style of the plans and views appealed very much to the uneducated public.” (Van der Krogt)

This work was the most famous of all the town-books comprising over 500 views. It featured views of the majority of the major European cities. The cities illustrated included Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bologna, Brixen, Brussels, Chios, Danzig, Hamburg, Helsingborg, Innsbruck, Istanbul (Constantinople), Cologne, Leiden, Liege, London, Luxembourg, Milan, Moscow, Nuremberg, Ostia, Paris, Pozzuoli, Prague-Eger, Rome, Rotterdam, Seville, Stockholm, Tivoli, Trento, Utrecht, Venice, Weimar, Wroclaw, and Zurich. It also included some illustrations of places in Asia, Africa, and Latin America including: Aden, Alexandria, Cuzco, Casablanca, Jerusalem, and Cairo.