ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the fabrication and meaning of the early modern European city views found in Frans Braun’s and Georg Hogenberg’s Civitates Orbis Terrarum (1572). It argues that despite their similitude to modern maps, the authors of the images made distinct visual choices that advance visual arguments about the cities depicted, rather than simply documenting the cities as they were. Furthermore, it claims these images as chorographies, a specific type of city view utilizing elevated viewpoints, comingled visual perspectives, prominent and recognizable monumental architecture, and a general disinterest in charting the real navigability of the urban fabric.
