COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Kosice is a large and well-fortified city in the Kingdom of Hungary. Situated on the borders to Transylvania on the Hernád, the city is in a good position both for protecting the country and for craft trades and commerce. It is one of the most important strongholds in the whole kingdom and capable of soundly defeating even the most powerful ennemy. Although the city has suffered many battles and dangers, it has nonetheless always remained loyal to the most praiseworthy imperial house of Austria, even at the time when Stephen Bocskay seized not only Transylvania but also large parts of Hungary and was allowed to keep them with the permission of the Emperor."

Kosice is shown from the south on a hill above a suburb. The mighty cathedral of St Elizabeth rises up in the middle of the city. At the beginning of the 13th century, German colonists founded a commercial centre here, beside a Slavic settlement. In 1290 Kosice was one of the first towns in the Kingdom of Hungary to be granted a municipal charter. As an important trade centre, the city developed into the second-largest Hungarian city after Buda and prospered in the 14th/15th centuries. In 1657 the city received its own university. The Turkish Wars as well as internal unrest led to decline, so that Kosice had scarcely any economic importance in the 18th century. After the First World War the city passed to the newly founded state of Czechoslovakia, and became part of the Slovak Republic in 1993. With a population of around 235,000 it is the second-largest city in the country. (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.