Moscovia Urbs Metropolis Totius Russiae Albae

Splendid bird's-eye view of Moscow showing the walled Kremlin in the centre of the city. The coats of arms of the city of Moscow and of the Kingdom of Muscovy decorate the top corners.



This map is a reissue of a map first published in 1617 by Georg Braun & Frans Hogengerg in the final edition of their groundbreaking atlas of city views, the Civitates Orbis Terrarum. This is the second map of Moscow to appear in the atlas and is believed to have been based on a survey of the city conducted by Tsar Boris Godunov around 1630. As this map only appears in the final edition of the atlas, it is much rarer than the other Braun & Hogenberg map of Moscow.



The copper-plates from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum were sold to the Amsterdam publisher Jan Jansson in 1653 who used them in his own atlas of city views starting in 1657. This example of from the 1657 Latin edition of Jansson's atlas.



Latin text on the verso (image available on request). [RUS2586]