Braun/Hogenberg. Cities of the World (Bibliotheca Universalis)

Braun and Hogenberg were two of the most important map-makers of the Early Modern period. This book includes maps from two volumes of their incredible, highly accurate atlases made during the late 16th and early 17th Centuries, covering almost all the major cities of Europe (quite a few of them twice) as well as several in the middle east and as far away as Mexico. The original maps are much bigger than the ones seen here in this small book, but the small size is what allows it to be so amazingly affordable. It is so thick it would also be too heavy to carry around or read if it was much larger.The book itself is hardback, and very nicely bound, and features a built-in ribbon bookmark. It's a collectors item. The images are incredible, beautifully rendered in full color, they often include hidden Easter-eggs and the book includes both the short descriptions from the original atlases, which often also have fascinating tidbits of information, as well as a modern commentary on each town by the editor of this volume. Stephan Fussel did an amazing job with this, it's a treasure, a keeper. If you like maps at all or have any curiosity about the world of pre-industrial Europe, get this gem while it is still in print, and see what these cities looked like while they still had their original medieval layout. Paris, for example, was an utterly different city when this map was made. Frankfurt am Main looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. Strasbourg looks like an impregnable fortress from Game of Thrones. This is a trip down an amazing rabbit hole.

Great book--yes, the reproductions are small, but it's good to have them all in one place. For areas that particularly interest you, books with larger images are available, or you can even buy an original print online (as I did). This book is very handy for me as a historical novelist imagining cities long ago.

The book is well constructed and well assembled. The subject matter and writing are excellent. However they don’t tell you up front how small the book is. I was envisioning something larger, maybe even coffee table size but what I got is rather small. I wanted to study the pictures in detail but they are all either really small or printed across two pages with parts of the images buried deep in the binding.

great book...i love maps and have many map books..the maps in here are a certain genre so be prepared that they might get a little boring after a while...great size book and nice printing

Great book. Got a second copy for my brother. He loved it. Only wish the prints were larger. Know the book would be larger and the costs, but I'd consider paying a little more for larger images. They are small.

Amazing drawings of old cities. This book is just fascinating!

Trash, small map that you cannot read... never buy it.

Já conhecia este livro. Por isso resolvi comprar. É ótimo.

Fue para un regalo por lo que yo no lo vi mucho, pero a la persona a la que se lo regalé le encantó. Buenas ilustraciones.

I have seen the huge painted maps on the walls in the Vatican museum and felt this would be a good one to get. Some people have complained that the detail is small. With 20:20 vision I don’t have that complaint. Having a magnifying glass may help others but I feel the scale at this print size is more than sufficient. You can never go wrong with Taschen books.

Beautiful.

The title of the book is almost a lie. The book is superb, very good really, but if the name was European cities would be better. Outside from europe the book didn't present so much.