Cantebrigia, opulentissimi Anglie Regni, urbs celeberrimi nominis, ab Academie conditore Cantabro, cognominata: a Granta, fluvio vicino, Cairgrant; Saxonib. Grauntecestre, et Grantebrige, iam olim nuncupata

This bird’s eye plan of Cambridge closely follows the earliest printed map of the city, engraved by Richard Lyne after a drawing by William Smith, which had been published in the previous year. It may even have been adapted by the same draughtsman as the principal difference is one of orientation: in the Civitates the city is viewed from the west rather than from the south.

Lyne’s map was sometimes included in copies of John Caius’ De antiquitate Cantebrigiensis Academiæ but the original broadsheet is very scarce (copies may be viewed in the university libraries in both Cambridges); it would not be unreasonable to describe Braun and Hogenberg’s Cambridge as the earliest obtainable plan of the city.

The basis for the text which appears on the verso is Braun’s correspondence with William Zoon, who had studied at the university in the 1540s and taught there in the early 1560s. His ‘hyperbolic laudation’ extends to the magnificence of the colleges, which he compares with palaces.

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum was one of the most significant cartographic works of the late sixteenth century, printed over 45 year period between 1572 and 1617. It was the first systematic city atlas (containing the first accurate surveys of many towns) and was inspired in part by the scope of Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terarrum which gathered together the best available geographical sources.

Town views and plans were all taken from direct observation rather than improvised in the manner of some earlier geographical works – it had not been unknown for the same view to appear in more than one guise.

Georg Braun wrote the text and Ortelius himself – who travelled through Italy with the artist Joris Hoefnagel – supplied a significant proportion of the material, which was then engraved by Simon Novellanus and Frans Hogenburg.

Later contributors included Abraham Hogenberg and Jacob Hoefnagel, who continued their fathers’ work. There were a number of editions, mostly with Latin text, but it is extremely difficult (and, according to Koeman 'of secondary importance') to differentiate between them, as the state of the plates and their number and order does not vary.

Condition & Materials
Copper engraving, printed area measurement 33.2 x 44.5 cm. Original hand-colour, Latin text on verso.

References
Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, B&H II
J. Willis Clark and Arthur Grey, Old Plans of Cambridge (1921), pp. 18-22

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Braun & Hogenberg's Map of Cambridge