Hagae Comitis celeberrimi totius Evropae municipij typus [The Hague/Den Haag.]

A birds-eye-view / town plan of The Hague. - This view comes from the sixth and last volume of the 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum' ("Theatri Praecipuarum Totius Mundi Urbivm Liber Sextus"), published in a much smaller edition than previous volumes, and it is, therefore, rarer than most of Braun & Hogenberg city views, published by A. Hierat in Cologne, 1618. With an ornamental title-cartouche, and another ornamental cartouche with explanatory notes (1.-18) and 2 coats-of-arms.

CARTOUCHE: Impression of the Hague, a city famous in all Europe. COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "The residence of the counts, called the court, is very well known, and is surrounded by poor walls and ditches. It is said to have been built by Count William, who was also the Roman king. As far as the village itself is concerned, it is as big as a medium-sized town, and, like other towns, has paved streets with houses standing very close together."

The bird's-eye view plan from the southwest shows an impressive unfortified residential city, traversed by canals, with densely packed and often very uniform townhouses. Standing out clearly in the plan is the curious late Gothic Sint-Jacobskerk (4). On the right immediately next to it is the Renaissance town hall (3) and below the court pond is the palace (1) with its big, rectangular inner courtyard and the Knights' Hall (Ridderzaal).
Originally, there was a hunting lodge here, which was extended to a seat of government by Counts William II and Floris V of Holland in the 13th century. Today the city has a population of around 475,000 and is the royal residence and seat of the Dutch government and Parliament, as well as a number of international institutions such as the International Court of Justice.

Braun G. & Hogenberg F. and the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. The 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum', or the "Braun & Hogenberg", is a six-volume town atlas and the greatest book of town views and plans ever published: 363 engravings, sometimes beautifully colored. It was one of the best-selling works in the last quarter of the 16th century. Georg Braun wrote the text accompanying the plans and views on the verso.
A large number of the plates were engraved after the original drawings of Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), who was a professional artist. The first volume was published in Latin in 1572, the sixth volume in 1617. Frans Hogenberg created the tables for volumes I through IV, and Simon van den Neuwel created those for volumes V and VI.
Other contributors were cartographer Daniel Freese, and Heinrich Rantzau. Works by Jacob van Deventer, Sebastian Münster, and Johannes Stumpf were also used. Translations appeared in German and French.
Following the original publication of Volume 1 of the 'Civitates' in 1572, seven further editions of 1575, 1577, 1582, 1588, 1593, 1599 and 1612 can be identified. Vol.2, first issued in 1575, was followed by further editions in 1597 and in 1612. The next volumes appeared in 1581, 1588, 1593, 1599 and 1606. The German translation of the first volume appeared from 1574 on and the French edition from 1575 on.
Several printers were involved: Theodor Graminaeus, Heinrich von Aich, Gottfried von Kempen, Johannis Sinniger, Bertram Buchholtz and Peter von Brachel, who all worked in Cologne.

Georg Braun (1541-1622) was born in Cologne in 1541. After his studies in Cologne, he entered the Jesuit Order as a novice. In 1561 he obtained his bachelor's degree and in 1562 his Magister Artium. Although he left the Jesuit Order, he studied theology, gaining a licentiate in theology.

Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590) was a Flemish and German painter, engraver, and mapmaker. He was born in Mechelen as the son of Nicolaas Hogenberg.
By the end of the 1560s Frans Hogenberg was employed upon Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in 1570; he is named as engraver of numerous maps. In 1568 he was banned from Antwerp by the Duke of Alva and traveled to London, where he stayed a few years before emigrating to Cologne. There he immediately embarked on his two most important works, the 'Civitates' published from 1572 and the 'Geschichtsblätter', which appeared in several series from 1569 until about 1587.
Thanks to such large-scale projects as the Geschichtsblätter and the Civitates, Hogenberg's social circumstances improved with each passing year. He died as a wealthy man in Cologne in 1590.

Reference: Koeman IV, map 1033, ed. 41:1 (1617/18 B&H 6).(Van der Krogt, 41:2.6)