Fine example of Janssonius bird’s-eye view of Madrid, published in his ‘Theatrum In quo visuntur Illustriores Hispaniae Urbes, Aliaeque Ad Orientem & Austrum Civitates celebriores’, 1657.

Regarded as the earliest known bird’s-eye view of Madrid, i has been suggested that the work is based upon a lost map of the Spanish capital produced by Antonio Manzelli around 1622, although this attribution is rejected by Felipe Pereda on the grounds of chronology, since some of the buildings depicted were not built until the 1630s. Jose Manuel Barbeito has explained these anachronisms as resulting from the use of designs by the architect Juan Gomez de Mora to depict buildings that would be completed years later, in some cases following different designs.