Paesi Bassi / Francia - Lilla (Lille); Braun - Hogenberg - LILLA / LILLE - 1601-1620

Splendid and rare prospectus-like plant/scene from the 16th/17th century of the city of Lille in the Spanish Netherlands, engraved on copper by Braun and Hogenberg, coming from the sought-after edition with Italian text on the back and preserved in an excellent original inking.

This fascinating and elegant bird’s-eye view of the historic city of Lille is a renowned work born from the masterful collaboration between the publisher Georg Braun and the engraver Frans Hogenberg. The specimen boasts extraordinary collectible interest and documented editorial rarity thanks to the sheet’s reverse, which bears the original historical-descriptive text printed in antique Italian, an element that certifies the piece’s absolute belonging to the sought-after editions of the Teatro delle Città del Mondo pressed in Antwerp between the late 16th and early 17th centuries for major collectors and nobles of the Italian peninsula.

The visual composition admirably describes Lille’s late medieval and Renaissance urban layout, one of the economic and strategic capitals of the County of Flanders within the Spanish Netherlands. The topography is delineated with exceptional descriptive rigor, showing the complex ring of fortified walls and monumental gates defended by the winding courses of the rivers and flood canals of the Deûle that encircle the urban fabric. In the lower left there stands a monumental Baroque cartouche in the shape of an altar enclosing an exhaustive numbered legend in French with no fewer than twenty references to the main monuments, including the historical gates, the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter, and the town hall, while the lower foreground is nobly animated by three figures in local patrician costumes of the period. The upper corners of the sky are solemnly crowned by two large Baroque heraldic shields finely engraved within garlands, depicting the rampant lion of Flanders and the city’s heraldic lily. The specimen appears in excellent overall condition, printed on robust contemporary paper with watermark, with a crisp, clean inking free of alterations, preserving its broad original margins intact on all four sides.

Dimensions 32 x 38 cm
Will be shipped by courier.