Visbia Gothorum

This engraved bird’s-eye view shows Visby on the island of Gotland (now part of Sweden) from the west, with the harbour in the foreground and the city wall in the background. Buildings and features of the town are identified with letters, corresponding to a key beneath the image. Text about the town appears in Latin on the reverse of the print.

The print was no. 39 in volume 5 of ‘Civitates Orbis Terrarum’ (‘The Cities of the World’), an ambitious and influential town atlas originally published in six volumes from 1572 to 1617 with many subsequent editions and translations. The multi-volume work was compiled by Georg Braun, a German theologian and cartographer, and illustrated in large part by Frans Hogenberg, a Flemish engraver. Other contributors included engraver Simon van den Neuvel, artist and draftsman Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel and topographer Jacob van Deventer and others.