This very rare bird's-eye view of Constantinople shows the city across the strategic Bosphorus Strait that is filled with ships. The detailed view depicts the streets and buildings throughout the city, with a lettered key at bottom identifying over 50 important locations. A large compass rose orients north to the top right. Italian and Greek text on verso. This plan is by Forlani, one of the leading cartographers of the Lafreri-School, and published in Giulio Ballino's De'Disegni delle Piu Illustri Citta, et Fortezze del Mondo in 1569. The Lafreri-School was not actually a school, but a group of cartographers, mapmakers, engravers and publishers who worked in the major Italian publishing centers of Rome and Venice, from about 1544 to 1585.

References: Shirley (BL Atlases) T.BALL-1a #42.

Condition: B+

Light soiling with a minor crease adjacent to the centerfold and remnants of hinge tape on verso.