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Description

Unrecorded Second State of the Second Earliest Printed Model View of Florence

Second state of Hieronymus Cock's highly important and influential view of Florence, originally engraved Antwerp in 1557.

First published in 1557, Cock's view is the second earliest model for a view of Florence, after Francesco Roselli's view, created between 1482 and 1490, for which there is no surviving original.  The earliest known surviving copy of the Rossell's view (attributed to Lucantonio degli Uberti) was published in about 1510 and is known to survive in a single example in Berlin.  Rossell'is view is, for example, the basis for the Hartmann Schedel view of Florence, published in 1493.

Cock's view of Florence, first engraved in Antwerp in 1557, is the first "new" view of Florence and would serve as the model copied by Braun & Hogenberg (1572).  The first state of the Cock view survives in a single example, in the National Library of Sweden.

With the death in 1600 of Cock's widow, Volcxken Diercx,  the remaining Hieronymus Cock engraving plates were sold or retained by the famous engraver Philllipe Galle, who had worked for many years in Cock's workshop and served as executor.  Some of Cock's copperplates are known to have been sold to Paul van der Houve, who had by the end of the 16th century established himself in Paris.  Van Der Houve, for example, issued an example of the Cock's 1553  four sheet map of Spain, Nova Descriptio Hispaniae and his monumental map of Sicily and a number of his other engravings.  While the existence of this view of Florence was previously unrecorded, it would seem clear that van der Houve acquired the plates following the death of Cock's widow in 1600.

The present example is unchanged from the first state, with the exception of the updated publisher's information in the small box next to the cartouche. 

A superb, dark, well-inked impression of this large, scarce, panoramic view of Florence.

Rarity

The view is very rare and was previously not known to survive. 

There are no recorded examples of this second state and only 1 known example of the first state of the view, in the National Library of Sweden.

Condition Description
3 sheets, joined.
Hieronymus Cock Biography

Hieronymus Cock (1518-1570) was a skilled Flemish engraver, painter, and publisher of prints in the sixteenth century. He hailed from an artistic family, as his father and brother were both painters as well. He trained as a painter in Antwerp and then spent time in Rome (1546-7).

Cock and his wife, Volcxken Diercx, established their publishing house in 1548 at Aux quatre vents, or at the house of the four winds. Cock’s publishing house became renowned in northern Europe as he and his wife, and successor, transformed printmaking from an individual activity to one based on a division of labor. This allowed him to publish more than 1,100 prints in just over two decades (1548-1570). He is known to have personally etched 62 plates.

Cock’s cartographic output included country maps, landscape prints, and town plans, especially of cities under siege. He also worked with mapmakers; for example, he collaborated with Diego Gutiérrez on a 1562 map of the America. He famously released prints by important engravers who produced works after the Italian masters of the Renaissance, popularizing that movement in the north of Europe.