World history: Exhibition “Spanish towns in plans, books and engravings” opens in St. Petersburg

April 18, 2011 in the Korf hall of the National Library of Russia (St. Petersburg), within the framework of the Cultural Exchange Year of Russia and Spain Russia is opening a unique exhibition “Spanish towns in plans, books and engravings”.

The exhibition releases engravings from the first printed atlas of world’s towns “Civitates Orbis Terrarum” (“Atlas of Towns of the World”), published in Cologne from 1572 to 1617. All six volumes of this atlas are stored in the Cartographic Department of the National Library of Russia.

The centerpiece of the exposition are engravings richly decorated by hand which show prospects, bird-eye views and map views of Spanish towns and landscapes. Atlas was created by Dutch engraver and publisher Franz Hogenberg, German theologist and editor Georg Braun and famous Dutch artist Joris Hoefnagel. Images of Spanish towns, which by their colorfulness turn out to be the most impressive in the atlas, have been prepared by Hoefnagel.

Town plans, unveiled at the exhibition, are accompanied by texts and numerous illustrations of genre scenes, traditional occupations of population, historical events, what makes this section a kind of an encyclopedia of Spanish history in late 16th – beginning 17th cc.

The exposition also features engravings originating from the album entitled “Collection of Spanish costumes, ancient and modern” (the 1790s) by the Spanish engraver Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, also famous for his cartographic works.

The exhibition has been organized by the National Library of Russia and General Consulate of the Kingdom of Spain in St. Petersburg.