Acquired From: Paulus Swaen
Colouring: Uncoloured
Condition: Good
Confirmed: No
Dealers ID No.: 47935
Description: The Civitates orbis terrarum (Cities of the World) is a monumental six-volume series of city views and plans, conceived as a cartographic and cultural companion to Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum orbis terrarum (for the 1584 edition View Record (#252)). The project was initiated by the Cologne cleric and scholar Georg Braun (15411622) and engraved largely by Frans Hogenberg (c. 15351590). The first volume was published in 1572, followed by successive volumes in 1575, 1581, 1588, 1598, and 16171618.nBraun authored the prefaces and descriptive texts for the first five volumes, while Hogenberg and his workshop produced the majority of the engravings. After Hogenbergs death, the project was continued by his son Abraham Hogenberg, in collaboration with the publisher Anton Hierat. The series was widely reprinted into the seventeenth century, often without significant revision, attesting to its enduring popularity and authority.nAlthough best known for its detailed city views, the Civitates is also notable for its allegorical title pages, which frame urban geography within broader moral, religious, and political narratives. They often engage directly with the confessional conflicts and geopolitical tensions of early modern Europe, positioning cities not merely as physical spaces, but as actors within a contested cultural and ideological landscape.nThis title page is from Volume 3 (as issued in the 1588 edition), which continues the humanist tradition established in earlier volumes, turning attention to the civic virtues and moral principles believed to uphold a flourishing society.nThe central motif is an elaborate stone structure festooned with fruit garlands and inhabited by seven female allegories. Crowning the page at upper left is Pax (Peace), holding a dove and caduceusemblems of reconciliation and healing. She is counterbalanced at top right by Concordia (Concord), who holds a patera, a sacrificial vessel symbolising unity through shared purpose. Beneath the open pediment, Justicia (Justice) takes centre stage with sword and scales, flanked by Securitas (Security), seated calmly with arms crossed, and Opulentia (Opulence), whose cornucopia overflows with the fruits of prosperity.nOn the lower level stand Communitas (Community), identified by her spade as a figure of collective effort and labour, and Obedientia (Obedience), who cradles a wooden squarelikely a builders toolsymbolising structured order and submission to common law.nBeneath the architectural frame, two nude male figures gaze through an archway toward the mythic construction of the Tower of Babel. This biblical scene from Genesis 11 underscores a sobering counterpoint: the dangers of hubris and the divine scattering of human languages, which ultimately gave rise to the worlds many cities and cultures.nBoth a celebration of urban achievement and a meditation on its moral foundations, this title page captures the Renaissance belief in cities not just as geographic or economic centres, but as products of civic virtue, divine order, and human striving.
Engraver: Hogenberg, Frans (1535-1590)
First published: Civitates orbis terrarum Vol. 3, Cologne: Gottfried von Kempen, 1581
Image Size (cm): 36.5×22.5
Mapmaker: Braun, Georg (1541-1622) and Hogenberg, Frans (1535-1590)
Notes: Purchase details-date, year
Primary Category: Titlepage
Rarity: R3 Uncommon – dealers can usually obtain a copy
References: On the publication of the Civitates orbis terrarum, see Peter van der Krogt, Koemans Atlantes Neerlandici: The Town Atlases: Braun & Hogenberg, Janssonius, Blaeu, De Wit, Mortier and Others, vol. 4, Parts 1, 21. and 2.2, Koemans Atlantes Neerlandici (Utrecht: Hes & De Graaf, 2010), 35178. nR. A. Skelton, Introduction, in Civitates Orbis Terrarum, 1st ser. vol. 1 (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1966), viixxiii; Tine Luk Meganck, Erudite Eyes: Artists and Antiquarians in the Circle of Abraham Ortelius (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 133. nPeter van der Krogt, Mapping the Towns of Europe: The European Towns in Braun & Hogenbergs Town Atlas, 1572-1617, Belgeo [Online] 34 (2008): 37198.
Sheet size (cm): 41.7×29
Shirley ID #: 11A Courtiers and Cannibals
Technique: Copper Engraving
This state: 1588
Laisser un commentaire