Bidspirit auction | Caletum (Calais, Canal da Mancha).

Caletum (Calais, Canal da Mancha). Colónia, c. 1598. - [CALAIS (FRANCE)]. Calesium [= Caletum]. Georg BRAUN; Frans HOGENBERG (eds.). [Cologne, Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg, c. 1598]. Engraving; 425 × 535 mm (sheet). Plan-view of the fortified town of Calais on the Oceanus Britannicus (English Channel). The urban enclosure is entirely surrounded by wide water-filled moats and bastioned trace, with gates, bastions and outworks; the regular grid of blocks is organised around the main church and the high municipal tower, and also includes the castle/citadel sector and fortified suburbs. The harbour, with long moles, is busy with numerous sailing ships, while the coastal dunes can be made out in the distance. In the sky, a coat of arms with the title CALETUM; in the lower right corner, a cartouche with Latin text dating the view to 1597. In the foreground, figures provide scale. Text printed on the verso in Latin under the heading CALESIVM, with historical and military notes on the city; pagination “22”, from volume V of the Civitates orbis terrarum.