Cities of the World, By Braun and Hogenberg

This wonderful book reproduces all 363 colour plates from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, which the Cologne-born Catholic cleric and cartographer Georg Braun edited over a period of more than 40 years in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

It contains bird's-eye and map views of every major city in the old world. Teeming with incident, detail and colour, it offers a comprehensive survey of Early Modern urban life. More than 100 artists contributed to the project, but chief among them was the Antwerp master engraver Franz Hogenberg. Shown left are his views of St Mark's Basilica in Venice and the 1577 fire at the Doge's Palace.