BRAUN, Georg (1542–1622); HOGENBERG, Frans (1535–1590) — *Cracovia Minoris Poloniae Metropolis*. Cologne, 1617.
BRAUN, Georg (1542–1622); HOGENBERG, Frans (1535–1590) — *Cracovia Minoris Poloniae Metropolis*. Cologne, 1617.
Hand-colored copperplate engraving, 310 × 543 mm, printed on 395 × 593 mm paper. Verso blank. Traces of atlas folding; after conservation, the left and right margins have been restored. Framed. Engraved by Jacob Hoefnagel.
A panoramic view of Kraków from the south, looking across the Vistula River, with the city stretching along the opposite bank at the foot of gently rolling hills. In the upper center is a title cartouche decorated with a ribbon motif and fruit-bearing branches, bearing the inscription “Cracovia Minoris Poloniae Metropolis.” On the left, the hill is crowned by the royal castle and Wawel Cathedral; to the right lies the walled Old Town, with churches, towers, and red-tiled roofs, enclosed within fortifications and a moat. In the foreground, on the Vistula River, small boats are visible.
In the lower left corner is an elaborate cartouche topped with a royal crown, containing a list of twenty letter designations identifying the city’s most important buildings, including the royal castle, the main churches and monasteries, and the city gates. In the foreground, two figures in Polish noble attire—one wearing a fur cap and a fur-lined coat, the other wearing a hat with feathers and a caftan tied with a sash—are conversing on a sandy road by the river. This is an ethnographic element characteristic of the Braun and Hogenberg atlas.
One of the most famous and ornate early printed views of Kraków, based on drawings by the Flemish artist Egidius van der Rye, who worked in Kraków from 1592 to 1598. The view was published in *Civitates Orbis Terrarum*, a monumental, six-volume work devoted to the cities of the world, published in Cologne between 1572 and 1617. The atlas, compiled by Georg Braun and illustrated with copperplate engravings by Frans Hogenberg and other artists, was the first such comprehensive printed compendium of views of cities around the world.
Exceptionally decorative and one of the most important early printed views of Kraków, it offers a striking depiction of the former capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Imago Poloniae K103/1.
BRAUN, Georg (1542–1622); HOGENBERG, Frans (1535–1590) — *Cracovia Minoris Poloniae Metropolis*. Cologne, 1617.
Hand-colored copperplate engraving, 310 × 543 mm, printed on 395 × 593 mm paper. Verso blank. Traces of atlas folding; after conservation, the left and right margins have been restored. Framed. Engraved by Jacob Hoefnagel.
A panoramic view of Kraków from the south, looking across the Vistula River, with the city stretching along the opposite bank at the foot of gently rolling hills. In the upper center is a title cartouche decorated with a ribbon motif and fruit-bearing branches, bearing the inscription “Cracovia Minoris Poloniae Metropolis.” On the left, the hill is crowned by the royal castle and Wawel Cathedral; to the right lies the walled Old Town, with churches, towers, and red-tiled roofs, enclosed within fortifications and a moat. In the foreground, on the Vistula River, small boats are visible.
In the lower left corner is an elaborate cartouche topped with a royal crown, containing a list of twenty letter designations identifying the city’s most important buildings, including the royal castle, the main churches and monasteries, and the city gates. In the foreground, two figures in Polish noble attire—one wearing a fur cap and a fur-lined coat, the other wearing a hat with feathers and a caftan tied with a sash—are conversing on a sandy road by the river. This is an ethnographic element characteristic of the Braun and Hogenberg atlas.
One of the most famous and ornate early printed views of Kraków, based on drawings by the Flemish artist Egidius van der Rye, who worked in Kraków from 1592 to 1598. The view was published in *Civitates Orbis Terrarum*, a monumental, six-volume work devoted to the cities of the world, published in Cologne between 1572 and 1617. The atlas, compiled by Georg Braun and illustrated with copperplate engravings by Frans Hogenberg and other artists, was the first such comprehensive printed compendium of views of cities around the world.
Exceptionally decorative and one of the most important early printed views of Kraków, it offers a striking depiction of the former capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Imago Poloniae K103/1.
