Bidspirit auction | Fondi. Colónia, c. 1599.

Fondi. Colónia, c. 1599. - [FONDI]. Fondi. Georg BRAUN; Frans HOGENBERG (eds.), after a drawing by Georg (Joris) HOEFNAGEL ( Deping. G. Houfnaglius A° 1578 ). [Cologne, Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg, c. 1599]. Engraving; 425 × 535 mm (sheet). View of the walled city of Fondi, in the former Campania Romana , represented from the south, in a broad valley closed by high mountains (the Ausoni range). The city appears densely built, with an extensive crenellated wall reinforced by numerous cylindrical towers; at centre stands out the baronial castle and, beside it, the main church with slender bell tower, as well as other religious buildings. Around, a mosaic of cultivated fields, vineyards and olive groves climbs the slopes. In the foreground, rocky landscape with trees and four figures in contemporary costume (including veiled women and a traveller with staff), giving scale and picturesque character to the scene. A small rectangular cartouche along the lower margin identifies, by letters, the Via Appia and lake of Fondi; indications of the cardinal points “Septentrio” (top) and “Meridies” (bottom). On verso, descriptive text in Latin under the heading FVNDI , paged “62”, forming part of volume V of the Civitates orbis terrarum . Fondi, then an important locality of the Campagna Romana and fief of the Colonna family, is here shown at a still flourishing moment, before the decline that began after Turkish corsair attacks in the 16th century. The sheet belongs to the monumental urban atlas Civitates orbis terrarum , directed by Georg Braun and engraved mainly by Frans Hogenberg, with drawings by Joris Hoefnagel and other collaborators, published in six volumes between 1572 and 1617.