Old Map of Edinburgh in 1581 by Georg Braun - Castle, City Walls, St Giles Cathedral, Old Town
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Drawn as a bird's-eye view rather than a plan seen from directly above, this print reproduces the Edinburgh plate from Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the six-volume atlas of town views first published from Cologne beginning in 1572 and among the most widely owned geographical works of the late sixteenth century. The Edinburgh view, titled Edenburgum, Scotiae Metropolis, was engraved for the atlas and published in 1581, identifying the city in its Latin cartouche as the metropolis of Scotland.
Edinburgh Castle is labelled Castrum Puellarum, the Maidens' Castle, standing on its rock at the head of the High Street, which the engraving traces down toward St Giles, the burgh's principal church, and onward through the Netherbow port to Holyrood Abbey at the foot of the slope. The city walls enclosing this narrow ridge are drawn in detail, along with the closes and wynds branching off the High Street that gave Edinburgh's Old Town its distinctive layout, a plan that remained largely unchanged for the next two centuries.
A fitting graduation or housewarming gift for anyone with Edinburgh roots, this reproduction of a view now more than four centuries old still traces the same High Street that runs through Edinburgh's Old Town today, and is printed unframed and available in nine sizes.
