Le vray Pourtraict de la Ville d'Aix en Provence

A rare and early woodcut view of Aix-en-Provence. Shown are a lot of details, including a place of execution on a hill. To the left a key describing the main buildings and places. Ruled in brown ink. Extremely fine cut for a woodcut view.

This woodcut was published in La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le monde, printed 1575 in two volumes in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau and Michel Sonnius with the French text by Francois de Belleforest. It is a French version of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia Universalis. Most of the woodcut maps and drawings of Münster's work were discarded and new woodblocks have been made. The geographical information is mainly based on Abraham Ortelius and Braun & Hogenberg, but also comes from unknown sources. All maps and views of Paris edition by Belleforest are very rare since there was one edition in one language only. The woodcuts of the Basel edition by Seb. Münster were used in 46 different editions.

François de Belleforest was a French writer, translator and poet during the Renaissance. In 1568 he became historian of King Henry III, but had to give up soon because of inaccuracies. He worked as a writer and translator and transferred the Cosmography of Sebastian Munster into French. La Cosmographie universelle de tout le monde was published 1575 in Paris and was created in collaboration with the two Parisian publishers Nicolas Chesneau and Michel Sonnius. He has not used Sebastian Munster as sole source, several maps and views are based on Ortelius and Braun / Hogenberg, but also own work and unknown sources are found in the important work.

The picture shows the bust of Belleforest in Samatan (Gers, France). Source: Wikipedia, BastienM.

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