Le vray portraict de la ville de Marseille - Belleforest 1575

📜 Description
Original city view of Marseille, published in Paris in 1575 in François de Belleforest’s *Cosmographie Universelle de tout le Monde*. The image depicts the principal port of Provence from a bird’s-eye perspective characteristic of Renaissance cartography and urban topographical illustration, providing a detailed representation of the city layout, fortifications, defensive walls, harbor structures, and the islands guarding the entrance to the port. The composition integrates the urban fabric, defensive system, and surrounding maritime environment into a comprehensive view of the city, emphasizing Marseille’s strategic and commercial importance within the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world. The engraved title *Le Vray Portraict de la Ville de Marseille* clearly identifies the subject represented, while the two descriptive cartouches list the principal civic, religious, and military buildings of the city and harbor, reinforcing the documentary purpose of the work. The presence of printed French text on the verso confirms the print’s editorial origin within Belleforest’s celebrated cosmographical publication. Executed as a woodcut on paper and subsequently colored, this antique print constitutes a significant iconographic testimony to Renaissance Marseille and to the growing interest in the representation of major European cities during the sixteenth century.

📚 Historical and Artistic Note
François de Belleforest (1530–1583), French historian, cosmographer, and man of letters, was the author of the monumental *Cosmographie Universelle*, one of the most ambitious geographical works published in Renaissance France. Issued by Nicolas Chesneau and Michel Sonnius, the publication combined historical, geographical, and topographical descriptions illustrated with numerous maps and city views. Today, these views of European cities are regarded as valuable documentary sources for the study of urban development and territorial organization during the sixteenth century.

🧾 Technical Details
Type: Original city view
Author: François de Belleforest
Publisher / Printer: Nicolas Chesneau; Michel Sonnius
Place: Paris
Date: 1575
Material: Paper
Technique: Woodcut
Title / Subject: *Le Vray Portraict de la Ville de Marseille*
Edition: From *Cosmographie Universelle de tout le Monde*
Dimensions: Sheet 34.5 × 44.5 cm; printed area 28.5 × 41 cm

🔍 Condition Report
Sheet in very good overall condition. Minor professional restorations along the central fold. The woodcut impression remains clear and well defined. Verso with printed French text. Overall preservation is very good.