VIEWS OF CALCUTTA: CALECHUT CELEBERRIMUM INDIAE EMPORIUM FROM BRAUN AND HOGENBERG'S 'CIVITATES ORBIS TERRARUM'
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILE
Georg Braun (1541 - 1622) and Frans Hogenberg (1539/40 - 1590), France and Cologne, Germany, circa 1572 - 1617

Hand-coloured etching on paper, with a view of the important 16th-century trading city Calcutta (Kolkata) from sea depicting the coastal line, with ships in the foreground, the townscape and mountainous terrain to the background, including two elephants, one grazing, the latter looking at the figures building boats, a mother and child, and a nobleman being carried in a litter by assistance, and a cartouche reading 'CALECHVT CELEBERRIMVM INDIE EMPORIVM'; three further views from sea, depicting the town of Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, Canonor in India and the Portuguese fortress of El Mina in West Africa, the reverse with descriptions of each town lettered in Latin, and the page number '54', the plate 33.4cm 47.1cm, the page 41.9cm x 54.1cm, the mount 46.1cm x 60cm.

Provenance: Purchased from a London book fair in the 1990s.

Georg Braun (editor) and Frans Hogenberg (engraver) first began publishing their Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cities of the World) in 1572. In total, the atlas comprised six tomes, the last of which was not published until 1617. Over three hundred countries were mentioned and illustrated in these tomes. The publication was an epic success and a first for European cartographical publishing at the time often referred to as the ancestor to modern tourist guides. Despite being mostly targeted to an educated crowd, given the greater number of publications in Latin rather than French or German, it is said its pictorial style captured the eyes of the contemporary undereducated public as well.

Braun was a cleric of Cologne as well as a geographer and publisher. In his partnership with Hogenberg, son of the Belgian printmaker Nicholas Hogenberg and stepson of mapmaker Hendrik Terbruggen, he assumed the role of editing, assisted by Abraham Ortelius, while Hogenberg was the primary engraver. The plates for Civitates were taken from drawings by various artists, including the notable Georg Hoefnagel. Sadly, Hogenberg died in 1590 before the final volumes of Civitates Orbis Terrarum were published, leaving his workshop to his son and his greatest achievement to posterity.

Dimensions: the plate 33.4cm 47.1cm, the page 41.9cm x 54.1cm, the mount 46.1cm x 60cm