Braun & Hogenberg "Tornacum.” [Tournay, Belgium]

Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg.  "Tornacum.”  [Tournay, Belgium].  From Civitates Orbis Terrarum.  Volume IV. 

Cologne, Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg, circa 1588+.  14 1/4 x 17 (image) plus full margins. Original color. Repairs on back to strengthen centerfold and a few short tears.  Browned.  Latin text on verso.

A lovely plan of Tournay in southwest Belgium, on the Schelde forty miles southwest of Brussels, from Braun and Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, one of the gems of the early days of modern cartography and topographical illustration.  Braun, the editor, and Hogenberg, the engraver, worked for over twenty years to produce their “towns of the world,” the first systematic depiction of views of cities throughout the world.  This work, issued in six volumes from 1572 to 1617, was a monumental piece of Renaissance learning and was designed to complement Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas.  These two atlases, both firsts of their type, were in response to a new interest in the nature of the world by the Western European population.  This nascent interest was spurred both by the existence of a growing middle class and the relatively new general availability of printed books.  This view has a key with thirty landmarks identified, especially the town’s beautiful cathedrals.

Click the links below to view others from this series: 

"Gandavum, Amplissima Flandriae Urbs" [Ghent, Belgium]

"Hypra Flandriarum" [Ypres, Belgium]

"Mechelen" [Belgium]

"S. Audomari" [St. Omer, France]

"Heidelberga, Spira, Wormatia" [Heidelberg, Speyer & Worms, Germany]

"Palacios/Alcanerilla/Cabeças" [Spain]

"Pervsia" [Perugia, Italy]

"Sneecha. vulgo Sneeck Frisiæ Occidentalis Oppidum/ "Sloten"/ Doccum/ Ylstæ" [Sneeck, Sloten, Docum & Ylst, Netherlands]

"Die Stat Swybuschin in nider Schlesein”  [Swiebodzin, Poland]