COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "This is a very noble and extremely interesting city. [...] But in particular the soil on the northern side, where the mountains begin, is so fertile that it produces not only oil, wine, cherries, figs, peaches, plums, bitter oranges, lemons and similar delicious fruits, but also many beautiful wild trees grow on the highest peaks and precipitous rocks, as if out of the stone, especially of the kind that is called lotos in Latin, whose fruit is so sweet that anyone who has eaten of it can no longer resist the desire to eat more." 

This slightly elevated view from the southeast shows the city before the backdrop of the Sierra de Cordoba. In the foreground the 14th-century Torre de la Calahorra (D) can be seen, behind which is the Roman bridge (H) that crosses the Quadalquivir and leads to the cathedral (A). Built in the 8th century as a mosque and enlarged in the 9th/10th centuries, it was converted into a Christian church after the Spanish recaptured the city. On the left is the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos (G), begun under Alfonso XI in 1328, the residence of the Spanish kings; from the end of the 16th century the Inquisition had its seat here. Once the capital of the wealthy Roman province of Baetica, Cordoba was conquered by the Moors in AD 711 and as the residence of the Umayyad Caliphate it was one of the biggest cities in the world at that time. In 1236 Cordoba became Christian again in the course of the Reconquista. (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.