Bidspirit auction | Iaurinum vulgo Rab. Colónia, c.

Iaurinum vulgo Rab. Colónia, c. 1596. - [GYŐR / RAAB]. Iaurinum vulgo Rab. Georg BRAUN; Frans HOGENBERG (eds.), after a drawing by Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel, after an original by Nicolaus Anginelli. [Cologne, Braun & Hogenberg, c. 1596; date “1597” on the plate]. Engraving; 425 × 535 mm (sheet). Perspective view of Iaurinum (present-day Győr, German Raab), fortified city at the confluence of the river Rába with a branch of the Danube, represented as a powerful bastioned town in polygonal form, surrounded by a moat and connected by bridges to the marshy banks. Inside, the urban grid, towers, churches and the episcopal palace are clearly visible; around, the sinuous courses of the Rába (“Raby flv.”) and the Danube (“Danubius flv.”) and several neighbouring settlements, with toponymic legend. At left, cartouche with Latin text referring to the siege and capture of the city by the Turks in 1594; below, another inscription stating that the plan was originally drawn in 1566 by the Italian Nicolaus Anginelli and reduced by Georg Hoefnagel in 1597. In the foreground, a group of figures in Hungarian and Oriental costumes — hajduks, a noblewoman, a wounded Polish cavalier and a Turkish captive — giving the composition ethnographic character. Verso with extensive Latin description under the heading IAURINUM. RAAB. , paged, belonging to the Urbium praecipuarum mundi theatrum, liber quintus ( Civitates orbis terrarum ). Iaurinum/Győr was one of the most important Hungarian fortresses on the frontier with the Ottoman Empire, modernised according to the Italian art of fortification in the 16th century and considered an advanced bulwark in the defence of Vienna and Austria.