1574 Byzantium Nunc Constantinopolis

This marvelous engraving of Constantinople in original color is from an early edition of Braun & Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis Terrarum, the most prolific compilation of city views published in the 16th Century. Braun and Hogenberg’s map is one of the finest and most sought-after depictions of the magnificent ancient city, illustrating in fine detail the surviving historical architectural edifices of the day, along with those newly built by the Ottomans in the first century following their conquest of the city. This view of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire from its dedication by Constantine the Great till its fall in 1453, was made just one hundred and nineteen years after its capture by the troops of Fatih Mehmet, the Ottoman Emperor who had first been enticed by the city in his childhood. A Turkish proverb says ‘A red apple invites stones’, and the city, known to them as the Red Apple, had been an object of desire since Mohammed himself had spoken of its magn