Le vif Pourtraict de la noble Ville, & cité de Tours.

Francois de Belleforest (*1530 - 1583)
Antique woodcut town view of Tours, Centre-Val de Loire. Printed in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau, Michel Sonnius in 1575.

More details

Reference 11643

320,00 €

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Description

A rare and early woodcut view of Tours, Centre-Val de Loire. Ruled in brown ink. Decorated with two coat-of-arms and framed by a beautiful renaissance woodcut border. Extremely fine cut for a woodcut view. A key to the bottom describing the main buildings and places.

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.

Details

CartographerFrancois de Belleforest
TitleLe vif Pourtraict de la noble Ville, & cité de Tours.
Publisher, YearNicolas Chesneau, Michel Sonnius, Paris, 1575
Plate Size28.0 x 35.0 cm (11.0 x 13.8 inches)
Sheet Size36.5 x 46.5 cm (14.4 x 18.3 inches)

Condition

Very good condition.

Cartographer

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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Francois de Belleforest: Le vif Pourtraict de la noble Ville, & cité de Tours..
Antique woodcut town view of Tours, Centre-Val de Loire. Printed in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau, Michel Sonnius in 1575.

France - Belleforest, Francois de - Le vif Pourtraict de la noble Ville, &...

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