VEJER DE LA FRONTERA

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "Vejer is a small but superb town in Hispania Baetica, due to its position and its fine buildings. Not far from this little town the sea is so narrow that it measures scarcely 700 paces across. This strait divides Europe from Africa and the Spaniards call it the Estrecho de Gibraltar in their language, but otherwise it is known as the Herculean Sea."

The view shows the Strait of Gibraltar. While the River Barbate can be discerned on the left, the Rock of Gibraltar is visible above Vejer de la Frontera and in the distance the African shoreline, ending on the far right with Cape Espartel. Lying in front of the cape is the large expanse of the Atlantic. From 711 Vejer de la Frontera was in the hands of the Moors, until it was recaptured by Ferdinand III in 1248. The city wall goes back to this period. The church depicted is Divino Salvador, built in the 14th century on the site of the earlier mosque and extended in the Gothic style 200 years later. 

VÉLEZ-MÁLAGA

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "Vélez-Málaga is a graceful little town in Spain, five stones's throw from Málaga and half a mile from the Mediterranean. It has an imposing castle, built long ago by the Moors. The mountains around this little town are so high and steep that one can easily see from the top the Herculean Sea, the mountains and several towns in Barbary [area in North Africa where the Berbers live] and in Africa the two cities of Ceuta and Tangier."

The view shows Vélez-Málaga with the Sierra Tjeda in the background; the fortress perched on a hill was built under Moorish rule in the 13th century. While the city was known as Menoba in the time of the Roman Empire, the Moors later renamed it Ballix-Malaca, fortress of Málaga. In 1487 Ferdinand III succeeded in recapturing the city. A large part of the city wall was destroyed by Napoleon's soldiers in the Spanish War of Independence. The Andalusian city of Vélez-Málaga, together with the district of Torre de Mar, is today one of the most popular bathing resorts on the Costa del Sol. (Taschen) 

Braun G. & Hogenberg F. and the Civitates Orbis Terrarum.

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum, or 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 coloured. It was one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century. Georg Braun wrote the text accompanying the plans and views on the verso. Many plates were engraved after the original drawings of a professional artist, a professional artist, Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600). The first volume was published in Latin in 1572, and the sixth in 1617. Frans Hogenberg created the tables for volumes I through IV, and Simon van den Neuwel made those for volumes V and VI. Other contributors were cartographers Daniel Freese and Heinrich Rantzau. Works by Jacob van Deventer, Sebastian Münster, and Johannes Stumpf were also used. Translations appeared in German and French.

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 1612. The subsequent 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.

Several printers were involved: Theodor Graminaeus, Heinrich von Aich, Gottfried von Kempen, Johannis Sinniger, Bertram Buchholtz and Peter von Brachel, who all worked in Cologne.

Georg Braun (1541-1622)

Georg Braun was born in Cologne in 1541. After his studies in Cologne, he entered the Jesuit Order as a novice. 1561, he obtained his bachelor's degree, and in 1562, he received his Magister Artium. Although he left the Jesuit Order, he studied theology, gaining a licentiate in theology.

Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590)

Frans Hogenberg was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker. He was born in Mechelen as the son of Nicolaas Hogenberg.

By the end of the 1560s, Frans Hogenberg was employed upon Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in 1570; he is named an engraver of numerous maps. In 1568, he was banned from Antwerp by the Duke of Alva and travelled to London, where he stayed a few years before emigrating to Cologne. He immediately embarked on his two most important works, the Civitates, published in 1572 and the Geschichtsblätter, which appeared in several series from 1569 until about 1587.

Thanks to large-scale projects like the Geschichtsblätter and the Civitates, Hogenberg's social circumstances improved with each passing year. He died as a wealthy man in Cologne in 1590.