(c.1540 - c.1590)
Franz Hogenberg was born in Mechelen, Antwerp, the son of an engraver, etcher and woodcutter. He came from a family of artists, who moved between Germany, France and England. He worked with mapmaker Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp from the 1550s. He may then have moved to England, as he produced a series of prints of English views and people, including portraits of William Cecil, Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I. He later engraved works for Ortelius’s ‘Theatrum orbis terrarum’ (1570) and also for ‘Civitates orbis terrarium’, edited by Georg Braun. It is thought that he was the initiator of the later project, as he compiled much of the content and engraved most of the 546 prospect views, bird’s-eye views and maps. He died in Cologne in 1590.
