Price: £350.00

• Date: 1598
• Condition: AAA
• Colour: BW
• Size (cm): approx. sheet size 42 cm x 56 cm

Until little over 100 years ago, Rome was not only the center to world Catholicism but also the capital of a sovereign state that was very much concerned with the temporal world. This state was governed by an autocrat, generally of noble birth. But unlike other monarchies, this one was not hereditary, and the scepter of power passed from one aristocratic family to another. Due to the advanced age of most pontiffs at the moment of election to the throne of St. Peter, often after only a few years of rule it was time to elect a new sovereign. This frequent alternation allowed each of the papal families a moment of power and glory. For the Italians, one of the most typical manifestations of that power, from the early Renaissance to the 19th century, was the construction of a sumptuous city dwelling (palazzo di citta) and/or a villa in the country. The Farnese Palace in Caprarola is definitely a residence of the powerful transplanted into a rural setting.

"...Georg Braun & Franz Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum, stands as one of the greatest monuments of late 16th and early 17th Century European cartography. Published in Cologne, Germany in a series of six volumes between 1572 and 1617/8, and, when finally completed, comprising nearly 550 City views and plans, the Civitates is also one of the most valuable sources for the study of Renaissance urban cartography. " - Roderick M Barron.