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Antique maps > europe > france > Antique map - bird's-eye plan of Valenciennes by Braun & Hogenberg

Valencena, quondam Cygnorum Vallis, Urbs Han: Perelegas, et Valde Magnifica. - Braun & Hogenberg, 1599.



Antique map - bird's-eye plan of Valenciennes by Braun & Hogenberg. Bottom right two costume figures.

TRANSLATION OF CARTOUCHE TEXT: Valenciennes, once Valley of the Swans, is a very fair and magnificent city in Hainaut.

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Valenciennes developed out of a castle that lay surrounded by water, and which was initially called the Valley of the Swans on account of the many swans; later, however, as the city grew ever larger, the inhabitants named it Valenciennes. It is a large and charmingly situated city with magnificent buildings, cloisters and churches, of which the church of Our Lady and the church of St John are the most admirable. The latter was built by Pippin, the king of France."

Valenciennes and the path followed by the Schelde as it crosses the city are seen here in a bird's-eye view from the south. From this angle the impressive basilica of Notre-Dame-du-Saint-Cordon, celebrating its millennium in 2008, stands out, along with the Gothic church of Saint-Géry. In the middle of the 16th century Valenciennes became a centre of Calvinism, and daily life during this period was dominated by confessional conflicts, some of them armed. Following Valenciennes's capture in 1580 by Alexander Farnese, Count of Parma, Protestantism was suppressed. In the course of the Counter-Reformation, a jesuit college was founded in 1591 whose library is still prized today. (Taschen)

Date of the first edition: 1581
Date of this print: 1599

Copper engraving
Size: 35 x 46.5cm (13.7 x 18.1 inches)
Verso text: Latin
Condition: Old coloured, excellent.
Condition Rating: A
References: Van der Krogt 4, 4552; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.230.

From: Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Liber tertius. Köln, Bertram Buchholtz, 1599. (Koeman, B&H3)

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Item number: 24040
Price: 350 Euro

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