Civitates Orbis Terrarum [Théâtre des principales villes de tout l'univers].

6 parts in 3 vol., folio; 351 (of 363) pl., lavishly hand-coloured, particularly vol. 2 and 3 (12 maps missing: 11. Liège, 13. Aachen, 44. Venice (part 1), 12. Marseille, 13. Avignon, 41. Konstanz, 43. Nuremberg, 45. Gorlitz, 46. Danzig (part 2), 29. Delft (part 3), 60. Venice (part 5), 11. Ostend (part 6); missing colophon, privilege, foreword in part 1 and 3, map of Antwerp loose in part 5, maps of Barcelona, Granada, Burgos heavily damaged but complemented with earlier Lat. editions, Liège completely replaced, maps of 's Hertogenbosch and Wroclaw exchanged, some pl. repaired, underlaid, remargined, incl. the engr. title, occ. corner missing or sm. hole, damp stain, some pl. foxed and browned).

Contemp. overl. vellum, gilt-decorated covers and spines (rebound with new flylvs, vol. 2 with weak joints and partly split, vol. 3 sl. damaged with spine partially loose, sm. defects).

Rare 1645 edition of the "Théâtre des cités du monde" (1st: ca. 1593), the French translation by Jeroen van Belle of the "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" (1st ed.: 1593), the town atlases published by Braun and Hogenberg at a moment when there was no comparable predecessor. Illustrated with 351 (of 363) finely coloured engr., i.e. 56 (of 59) pl. in part 1, 53 (of 59) in part 2, 58 (of 59) in part 3, 59 in part 4, 68 (of 69) in part 5 and 57 (of 58) in part 6. "The pictorial style of the plans and views appealed very much to the uneducated public" (Van der Krogt), hence also the choice for a vernacular edition like this French one. Characteristic of this 1645 edition, the 6 engr. titles do not have a pasted-on label with French title. Without colophon, privilege, foreword in part 1 and 3, but with preliminaries in part 5 (13 pp. "Au lecteur" and 2 pp. "Guilhelmus Salsmannus") as in variant C (ca. 1630). Part 5 is without index as often. Incl. the replaced pl. of Basel, Damascus and Alexandria in part 2, the additional paragraph on the siege of Sluis in 1604 in part 3, and pl. 43. Krakow of part 6 in st. 1. Published shortly before J. Janssonius acquired the copperplates in 1653, but given the bindings and as mentioned by van der Krogt, this edition could already have been published in Amsterdam. Hogenberg provided for his Cologne editions a standard brown calf binding, different from these Dutch vellum bindings. Also, the progressing damage resulting in a few cracks in the copperplates, e.g. the plate of Basle, indicates the late use of the plates.
Ref. Van der Krogt IV [41.3]. - Koeman B&H 13-18. - Phillips, P.L. (Atlases) 59.