COMMENTARY BY BRAUN (on verso): "Before the Christian faith was accepted, the Wendish language was spoken there, and the region was called Pomerzi in their local language, i.e. Wendish. The region is inhabited by indigenous peoples governed by their rulers and has never been subject to foreign domination. [...] It is provided with fine towns, yet the most beautiful of them are by the shores of the sea and only a few of them inland, among them Stettin, or Sedin, which, as is believed, derives its name from the Sedinis peoples and is the most notable of those towns situated on this side of the River Oder."

Szczecin is seen from the west in a bird's-eye view. All important buildings, squares and streets have been drawn in accurate detail. Not Christianized until the 12th century, Szczecin grew out of a Wendish (Sorb) village and two German mercantile settlements, as indicated by St James's church. After being declared a Free Imperial City in 1243, the town hall and, significantly next to it, the church of St Nicholas, consecrated to the patron saint of German merchants, were erected. The city joined the Hansa in 1278. When the castle was built in 1309, Szczecin became the capital of the Duchy of Pomerania. In 1630 Szczecin fell to Sweden, but from 1720 it belonged to Prussia, becoming its most important port in the late 18th century. Severely damaged in the war, Szczecin, on the west bank of the Oder, did not become Polish until July 1945. With a population of 411,000, Szczecin is the seventh-largest city in Poland. (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.