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Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: light brown beech wood and wood pulp, handmade

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The artwork reproduced

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum was the first atlas of the world's cities and one of the most important books published at the end of the 16th century. Although led by Braun and Hogenberg, the books were created by a large team of writers, engravers and artists.

In addition, the editors provided further factual information, such as deliberately planned layouts, the city's heraldic coat of arms, and the nature of the surrounding countryside, whether wooded or arable, pasture, vineyards or gardens. The importance of waterways is underlined by the careful delineation of stone bridges, wooden pontoons, flat-bottomed ferries, quays, jetties and piers; harbours with ocean-going vessels, inland waters with river traffic.

Varieties of overland travel are depicted: pedestrians, riders, carts, carriages and palanquins. Small vignettes illustrate the trades, occupations and customs of the place, agriculture, papermaking and textiles.

A distinctive feature of the plates is the inclusion of large figures in the foreground to illustrate local costume. These figures are necessarily out of proportion. The general multiplication of detail slightly offends some commentators who fail to appreciate the editors' purpose. Their primary aim was not to produce well-balanced landscapes, but to provide as much information as possible in a pleasing visual form: in effect, a kind of super guidebook.

This was done so magnificently that the result was an art as decorative as it is informative. Taken together, it forms a splendid compendium of life in 16th-century Europe. And since the growth of towns in early times, with a few obvious exceptions, was more or less static, it also provides a printed visual record of medieval Europe, and is one of the most valuable sources left to the scholar and historian of these periods.