One of the rarest and most influential plans of Vienna.

This bird's-eye view by Jakob Hoefnagel, first published in 1609, is one of the most famous views of Vienna. It depicts the city from the northeast, across the Danube. Framed by its surroundings, the high vantage point reveals a detailed depiction of not only the city fortifications, and church towers but also individual houses and other public buildings. The view is considered the most detailed and accurate depiction of the city before it was radically restructured in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Several of the buildings bear numbers, which correspond to a printed key that could be pasted beneath the view.

Jakob Hoefnagel (c.1573- 1632), painter, engraver, art dealer, and diplomat - son of the painter Joris (or Georg) Hoefnagel (1542-1600) -worked at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. After his father's death, he succeeded him as imperial court painter in November of 1602. He most likely settled in Vienna, in 1604, when he set about making plans to produce a large view of the city. Hofnagel dedicated the view to Rudolf's brother and rival, Matthias, who had become the Arch Duke of Austria, and King of Hungary and Croatia in 1608. He would later be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, in 1612, following Rudolf's abdication. Unfortunately, Hoefnagel did not find favour with Matthias, and returned to Prague, before fleeing, in 1620, to Sweden for supporting Frederick V, the "Winter King", and eventually settling in Hamburg.

After Hoefnagel's death, the copper platesfor his plan of Vienna passed into the possession of the Amsterdam publisher Claes Janszoon Visscher, who published a second, essentially unchanged edition in 1640, as here, dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. A third state from 1683, in which Hoefnagel's name no longer appeared, shows significant changes, especially regarding the fortifications, which had by the time been greatly extended. A reduced version appeared as early as 1617 in volume VI of Braun and Hogenberg's 'Civitates Orbis Terrarum'. Its inclusion in the 'Civitates' ensured its position as the most influential view of the city for the remainder of the seventeenth century.

Rarity: All issues of the plan are extremely rare, with only 2 institutional examples of the 1609 issue known; 4 of this, the 1640 issue; and one of the later 1683 issue. We have been unable to trace any examples, in available records, appearing in commerce since the WWII.