Rare, c.16th hand coloured engraved view of Cairo from the most famous of all series of town views ever made.
This exceptionally detailed bird’s-eye view of Cairo, is oriented with south at the top, based upon a view of the city made by the Venetian artist and engraver Matteo Pagano in 1549. The fortified city occupies the foreground and centre, with the Nile and its shipping beyond. The pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx appear prominently in the distance, while the surrounding landscape is populated with travellers, merchants, horsemen, camels and other figures illustrating contemporary life. The view combines topographical information with a lively depiction of the inhabitants and activities surrounding one of the principal cities of the Ottoman Empire.
The title, “Cairo, formerly Babylon, the greatest city of Egypt”, reflects the contemporary European identification of Cairo with ancient Babylon when the city contained approximately 30,000 houses, together with numerous palaces, mosques, schools, baths and monumental tombs. The plate is particularly significant as one of the earliest printed European views of Cairo and preserves an important visual record of the city before the major transformations of the modern period.
From: Braun & Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum. Cologne French text on verso.
Following the original publication of Volume 1 of the Civitates in 1572, seven further editions of 1575, 1577, 1582, 1588, 1593, 1599 and 1612 can be identified. Vol.2, first issued in 1575, was followed by further editions in 1597 and in 1612. The next volumes appeared in 1581, 1588, 1593, 1599 and 1606. The German translation of the first volume appeared from 1574 on, and the French edition from 1575 on.
References:
Kroght, P. Koeman’s Atlantes Neerlandici. Amsterdam 1997. Nine volumes. : VI-2 4539
Fauser, Alois, Repertorium älterer Topographie. Druckgraphik von 1486 bis 1750. Weisbaden, 1978: 14516
Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 3417308
Library of Congress Washington D.C.: G1028 .B7 1612
British Library London: C.29.e.1
