Caen – Antique Hand-Coloured Normandy Town Plan Engraving (1666)

Dieppe – Antique Hand-Coloured French Coastal Town Engraving (1666) This charming 17th-century copper engraving presents an early bird’s-eye plan of the fortified port town of Diepp...

Workum in Friesland by Nicolaes van Geelkercken, hand-colored map ca. 1616 This beautifully hand-colored engraving titled 'Worcum' presents an early 17th-century bird’s-eye view of ...

This is a 16th century original hand-colored copperplate engraved map of Tournai, Belgium, entitled "Tornacum" by Georg Braun & Franz Hogenberg, in volume IV of their famous city atlas "Civitates Orbis Terrarum", published in Cologne or Augsberg, Germany in 1575. The map provides a bird's-eye view of the walled city of Tournai, the second oldest city in Belgium. It lies approximately one hour by car southwest of Brussels or from Ghent. The names of thirty of its streets, prominent buildings, churches and squares are listed in a key within a strap-work cartouche in the lower left. These locations are numbered in the key corresponding to their locations on the map. This colorful map of Tournai (Tornacum or Tournay as it was called in the 16th century) includes the title in Latin in a cartouche in the upper center. Three crests are present across the upper map. A man and two woman are standing on a hill in the foreground in the lower right dressed in the style of 16th century upper class residents of the town. This is an English translation of an excerpt of Braun's description of Tornai: “Tornacum or Turnacum is a city in Gallia Belgica, situated on the Schelde in the territory of the Nervii, called Tournai by its French inhabitants, but Dorneck by the Germans. Tournai has always been a large and powerful city, with an abundance of goods and commercial activities and wonderfully resourceful craftsmen, who invent new articles every day, and although some of these go out of use they constantly conceive of other new things, both useful and delightful, so that they have at all times something that provides work and a means of livelihood for the poor." ReferencesVan der Krogt 4, 4435, State 1; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg...

A map of Nieuwpoort, anglicised to 'Newport', in northern Belgium. There is a panorama in the upper quarter depicting major landmarks. Below is a plan of the town, including its strong defences and ships at the port in the lower register. Inscribed with the title in plate to the lower edge, 'Newport a Strong Sea-Port Town...