Georg Braun (1541-1622) and Frans Hogenberg (ca.1540-ca.1590). Mexico, Regia et Celebris Hispaniae Novae Civitas and Cusco, Regni Peru in Novo Orbe Caput. Translation: Mexico, the Royal and Famous City of New Spain, and Cusco, the Capital of the Kingdom of Peru in the New World. (Braun & Hogenberg, Cologne: 1575). Published in Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Copperplate engraving with hand color. Image: 10 1/2 x 18 3/8 in. Sheet size: 15 x 20 5/8 in. Full margins. Latin text on verso. 2-inch “crack” in the sky above Mexico City that occurred during the printing process. Very good condition.
$2,400.00
Views of Mexico City and Cusco, Peru
Two fine engraved views of Mexico City and Cusco, Peru on one sheet. From the Latin edition of George Braun and Frans Hogenberg’s landmark work Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Cities of the World) completed in Cologne between 1572 and 1618, containing among the most beautiful and important images of Renaissance cities.
Mexico City was founded as Tenochtitlan around 1325 C.E. on an island in Lake Texcoco by wandering Aztec tribes. As the number of inhabitants grew to over 100,000 over the next 200 years, the city spread across ever more of the lake’s islets, which were linked by dams and bridges and drained by canals. The plate shows the magnificent central square with the palace of Moctezuma II and the Templo Mayor dedicated to the god Huitzilopochtli, where human sacrifice was performed. Reports of cannibalism and human sacrifice are a recurring theme of contemporary European accounts and were used to justify the Spanish conquest. Although the Aztecs were able to hold off Cortés and his troops in 1519, Tenochtitlan was taken by the Spanish in 1520 and the Aztec rulers put to death. The temple and the city were extensively damaged, and a church and a palace for the viceroy of New Spain were built on the central square. The new city was called Mexico City, one of the names for the Aztecs” (Taschen, p. 132).
The engraving of Cusco shows its straight roads clearly “although the blocks of houses are slightly too small and are drawn in distorted perspective. According to legend, Cusco was founded around 1200 by Manco Capac, the Quechua Indian who became the first Inca: the Quechua name for the city is Qusqu, meaning ‘navel of the world.’ On November 15, 1533 Cusco was conquered by the Spanish under the command of Francisco Pizarro, who tried to manipulate the Inca rulers to his own ends. These latter broke their alliance with the Spanish in 1536 and the ensuing Inca uprising lasted until 1572″ (Taschen, p. 132).
The Civitates Orbis Terrarum, also known as the ‘Braun & Hogenberg’, is a six-volume town atlas and the most excellent book of town views and plans ever published: 363 engravings, sometimes beautifully colored. It was one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century.
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