Braun and Hogenberg’s 1572 old map of Elizabethan London showing the City, Westminster and Southwark

Detail from Braun and Hogenberg’s 1572 bird’s-eye map of Elizabethan London

Decorative detail from Braun and Hogenberg’s 1572 map of Elizabethan London

Old Map of Elizabethan London 1572 – Braun & Hogenberg

Name: Old Map of Elizabethan London 1572 – Braun &amp; Hogenberg
SKU: 9584083722
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Braun & Hogenberg’s Map of Elizabethan London, 1572

First published in 1572 in the opening volume of Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg’s great city atlas Civitates Orbis Terrarum, this celebrated view is one of the most important surviving depictions of Elizabethan London. Its Latin title, Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis, presents London as the metropolis of the flourishing English kingdom.

The map shows London, Westminster and Southwark from an elevated bird’s-eye perspective. The walled City dominates the northern bank of the Thames, with Old St Paul’s Cathedral rising above the surrounding streets. The Tower of London guards the eastern approach, while London Bridge crosses the river into Southwark, at that time still visually distinct from the City itself.

Beyond the densely built streets, much of the surrounding landscape remains open. Fields, gardens and roads frame the city, helping to show just how compact Tudor London still was. South of the river the map includes the entertainments and buildings of Southwark, while the western extension towards Westminster reveals a capital already expanding beyond its medieval core.

The decorative figures in contemporary dress and the coats of arms are not merely ornamental. They place the city firmly within the political and social world of Elizabeth I. The map also preserves landmarks associated with the London Shakespeare would soon know, making it especially evocative for anyone interested in Tudor history, theatre and the early modern city.

Modern scholarship identifies the 1572 Braun and Hogenberg plan as closely related to the lost mid-sixteenth-century copperplate survey of London and to the later so-called Agas woodcut map. That relationship makes it far more than an attractive antique image: it is an important witness to the earliest detailed mapping of the capital.

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Description

Known today as the Braun and Hogenberg map of London, Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis appeared in 1572 in the first volume of Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the monumental atlas of cities edited by Georg Braun and engraved largely by Frans Hogenberg.

Map Details

Editors / mapmakers: Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg
Date: 1572
Original title: Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis
Published in: Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Volume I
Coverage: London, Westminster and Southwark
View: Elevated bird’s-eye plan

Elizabethan London Before the Great Expansion

The map records a city still concentrated around the medieval street plan. The walls and gates remain fundamental to the shape of the City, and the built-up area occupies only a fraction of modern central London. Outside the walls are fields, gardens, roads and scattered buildings, providing an immediate visual measure of the city’s later growth.

Old St Paul’s, the Tower and London Bridge

Old St Paul’s Cathedral dominates the skyline, while the Tower of London marks the eastern edge of the City. London Bridge, lined with buildings, forms the principal fixed crossing of the Thames and leads directly into Southwark. These landmarks make the map instantly recognisable while also revealing how differently the sixteenth-century city was organised.

Southwark, Westminster and the World of Shakespeare

Southwark appears as a separate but closely connected settlement on the south bank. The area would become famous for playhouses, inns and entertainments, and the map captures the landscape from which the Shakespearean theatre district would emerge. To the west, the route towards Westminster links the commercial City with the royal and governmental centre.

A Landmark in the Mapping of London

The Braun and Hogenberg plan is closely connected with the great mid-sixteenth-century survey tradition represented by the surviving fragments of the Copperplate map and the later Agas woodcut. Together these sources form the foundation of our visual knowledge of Tudor London.

Its combination of topographical information and decorative presentation is characteristic of Civitates Orbis Terrarum, which sought to show the great cities of Europe as both geographical places and expressions of civic identity.

Supplied unframed as a fine art print.