| Method | Copper engraving with hand colouring |
| Artist | Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg |
| Published | [Cologne, c. 1617] |
| Dimensions | Image 318 x 501 mm, Plate 322 x 508 mm, Sheet 416 x 562 mm |
| Notes |
A view of the Italian town of Tricarico, in the Matera province of Basilicata, from volume six of Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum. The town is depicted from the west, showing the three citadels for which the city is named to full effect. The medieval buildings and street plan, combining elements of Arabic, Byzantine, and Norman architecture, are labelled numerically, with a corresponding key at the bottom of the map enclosed in a strapwork cartouche. The most notable of the town's buildings is the Torre Principale, a Norman tower attached to the Monastery of Santa Chiara. The plan is further ornamented with three baroque armourials. Despite undoubtedly having ancient Lucanian and Greek origins, the first documentary evidence of the town of Tricaricum is Lombardic, dating to the 9th century. By the 11th century, the city had passed through the hands of Arab, Byzantine, and Norman rulers. Today it retains some of the finest and most complete examples of medieval architecture in Basilicata. Between 1572 and 1617 Georg Braun (1541-1622) and Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590) published six volumes of their Civitates Orbis Terrarum, containing over 500 prospects, views, and maps of mostly European cities, envisioned as a companion to Ortelius' atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Braun was the editor of the series, with Hogenberg as principle engraver. They relied mainly on existing cartography, but also on drawings made by the Antwerp artist Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), who had travelled through most of Western Europe. After Joris Hoefnagel's death his son Jakob continued the work for the Civitates. Condition: Strong clean impression with full margins. Red fore-edge colouring to edges of sheet, as issued. Central vertical fold as issued. German gothic letterpress on verso. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £375.00 |
| Stock ID | 42096 |