description
Grodna
Cologne, 31 x 49 cm., from “Civitates Orbis Terrarum,” first published in Cologne in 1572. Over a hundred different artists and cartographers engraved copper plates from drawings, the most significant being Antwerp artist Georg Hoefnagel, who not only contributed most of the original material for the Spanish and Italian towns but also reworked and modified those of other contributors, including Munster’s German views from the 1550 and 1572 editions of his “Cosmographia.” Braun added to the maps figures in local dress, because, he said, he believed the plans would not then be scrutinized for military secrets by the Turks, as their religion forbade
them from looking on representations of the human form.
Grodno (Bel.: Гродна, tr. Hrodna; Rus.: Гродно; Lith.: Gardinas): Founded: late 10th century; first reference: 1127 in the “Ruthenian (Russian) Primary Chronicle
