Scarce view of the City of Novogorod, which appeared in Vander Aa's Galerie Agreable.
A fine view of the city, with the Volkhov River in the foreground and a bridge crossing the river, with fortifed walls shown.
At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic and one of Europe's largest cities.
The town is shown at about the time that Novgorod was made the administrative center of Novgorod Governorate of the Russian Empire (in 1727), which was detached from Saint Petersburg Governorate.
Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) was a Dutch mapmaker and publisher who printed pirated editions of foreign bestsellers and illustrated books, but is best known for his voluminous output of maps and atlases. Van der Aa was born to a German stonecutter from Holstein. Interestingly, all three van der Aa sons came to be involved in the printing business. Hildebrand was a copper engraver and Boudewyn was a printer.