Belle-Forest, François De

La Ville, Cité, Université, Et Fauxbourgs De Paris From Cosmographie Universelle

      M. Sonnius, 1575. A MAGNIFICENT 16TH-CENTURY VIEW OF PARIS Woodcut: paper size 165/8" x 221/2" In 1544, the important German scholar and geographer Sebastian Munster published his landmark work on the universe. Entitled the "Cosmographia, " it was a 16th century best-seller which was re-issued over many years. In 1575, the Paris publisher François de Belle-Forest issued a French edition of the work which contained this large-scale woodcut view of Paris. Rather than reproducing Munster's view of the city, Belle-Forest compiled and engraved this much larger scale, more detailed and embellished version, based on his own profound knowledge of the city, its layout and monuments. Munster's much more schematic view, which did not, for example, include a monument of such prominence as the cathedral of Nôtre-Dame, was superseded by Belle-Forest's magnificent rendering. The view gives an excellent understanding of Paris as it appeared in the late 16th century, and it identifies and lists more than a hundred notable sites, including churches, streets, plazas, bridges, notable buildings, and city gates. Among these are the Bastille, then a prison; the Louvre, then a recently inaugurated palace of relatively humble dimensions; the Sorbonne; Nôtre-Dame; Montmartre; St. Sulpice; and many more. The urban developments of Henri IV, such as the building of the Pont-Neuf and the creation of open public spaces like the Place des Vosges and the Place Dauphine, were still several decades away (not to mention the extensive changes to the urban fabric that were to take place under Baron Hausmann in the 19th century, with the imposition of a sweeping system of broad boulevards). Belle-Forest's view is one of the best records of Paris as it was in the Renaissance, before the successive campaigns of urban development would profoundly transform the city into the form it assumes today. Belle-Forest's view is of considerable rarity, and this example is in particularly good condition.