Pourtraict de la magnifique Cité de Venise

Scarce bird’s eye view of Venice by Francois De Belleforest, which appeared in his 1575 Cosmographie Universelle.

The sheet is taken from the famous La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le Monde (Paris, 1575) a French version of Sebastian Muenster's Cosmographia.

This panorama of Venice is copied from Muenster (1550). Unlike the Muenster, this work is published in only one edition, and is therefore very rare.

The woodcut plates included in the La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le Monde are derivations from Abraham Ortelius, Braun & Hogenberg as well as Muenster. Some woodcuts, however, are taken using the plates first published in 1552 in the Cosmographia de Lyon by Guèroult & Balthazar Arnoullet (1517-1556), in the Premier livre des figures set pourtraitz des villes plus illustre set renommées d'Europe, containing 9 urban images, mostly copied from Sebastian Muenster's Cosmographia. The work was published in two volumes. Only 49 of the 163 woodcuts that appear in the two volumes are taken from Munster's Cosmographia. The publishers Chesneau and Sonnius also made use of material that had recently appeared on the book market.

Woodcut, a small repaired tear at the center fold, otherwise good condition.

Bibliografia

Cassini, n. 21; Moretto, Venetia Le immagini della Repubblica, pp. 78-79, n. 31; M. Pastoureau, LES ATLAS FRANÇAIS XVIe-XVIIe siècles. Répertoire bibliographique et étude. - Belleforest I-1 [2].