TRANSLATION OF CAPTION TOP: Caiazzo speaks to the reader: I am mighty through piety and the equal of Rome in age; Tullius (Cicero) and our ruins bear witness to this. 1597.

CARTOUCHE LEFT: Calatia, in Italian Caiazzo, very ancient town in fertile Campania.

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Caiazzo is an old town in the fertile countryside of Campania beside the River Volturno. It formerly had a Roman civic right, as can be read in the inscription on an ancient stone in the marketplace. A large part of the Old Town wall still survives and makes no meaningful contribution to the beauty of the town. There are further antiquities and old inscriptions in the town, which cannot all be described on this page [...]. The church of Caiazzo maintains the old tradition of icons, little known in Germany and France. 

The well-fortified town of Caiazzo (also called the Città dell'Olio, "City of Oil") lies northeast of Capua near the Vilturno and is seen in a bird's-eye view from the southwest. Caiazzo became a bishopric as early as AD 966, and the episcopal complex with its house, gardens and church occupies a large part of the town centre. The fortifications were built in the 13th century. The fortress (Arx Civitatis) is strategically situated on a hill overlooking the town and was built on top of an earlier Lombard castle that stood on the ruins of a Roman fort. Lying within the hilly, picturesque countryside around Caiazzo are a Franciscan monastery towards the west, a Capuchin monastery (bottom left) and - near the Porta Vetus - a hospital (Hospicium publicum) and a potters' workshop (officina figulorum) (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 greatest 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. A large number of the plates were engraved after the original drawings of Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), who was a professional artist. 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 created 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 in 1612. The next 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. In 1561 he obtained his bachelor's degree, and in 1562 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.