Picturing the World

Aquisgranum, vulgo Aich ad Menapiorum fines, perantiqua Imperij urbs... [Aachen]

Aquisgranum, or Aachen, situated on the borders of ther territory of the Menapii, a very old imperial city

Steenwijck, Henry (Cartographer, Colorist)

Cologne : Franz Hogenberg

1582

Cartographic
Still image

Maps (documents)
Historical maps
Pictorial maps
Engravings (prints)

Map/Globe, Image

reformatted digital

Renaissance print Aquisgranum, vulgo Aich, ad Menapiorum fines, perantiqua Imperij urbs... depicts the German city of Aachen in the mid-16th century. Artist Henry Steenwijck drew and painted the copperplate engraving, as evidenced by a signed banderole in the upper right corner. He may have also engraved the piece, though the engraver remains unclear. The map first appeared in the second printing of volume one of Georg Braun's Civitates Orbis Terrarum, c. 1582. Infused with Renaissance innovations such as the newly-favored bird's-eye view, Aachen depicts its namesake relatively accurately, despite deliberately widened streets to increase the legibility of names. Like the others in the series, the print relies on a limited palette of red, blue, and green watercolor paint; the dominance of green in this particular map reinforces the fertility of Aachen's surrounding land. Miniature figures in the bottom left corner, not to scale with the rest of the piece, allow viewers to glimpse local garb of the area. Aquisgranum, vulgo Aich, ad Menapiorum fines, perantiqua Imperij urbs... provides a brief yet captivating sense of life in 16th-century Aachen.

Civitates Orbis Terrarum
European City Views

Aquisgranum
Aachen (Germany)

european_braun_hogenberg_001

Northeastern University Library

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