Herberstein's Plan of Moscow from the Braun and Hogenberg Atlas, 1593

This 1593 copper engraving reproduces one of the earliest printed images of Moscow. The plan is associated with the name of Sigismund von Herberstein (1486–1566), a diplomat of the Holy Roman Empire who came to Moscow on embassies in 1517 and 1526. He set out his observations in Latin in his "Notes on Muscovy", first published in Vienna in 1549.

According to the catalogue description, the plan was re-engraved in 1575 by Frans Hogenberg, after the image in the 1556 Basel edition of the "Notes", for Georg Braun's atlas, and the sheet belongs to the 1593 edition of the atlas. Braun and Hogenberg's "Atlas of the Cities of the World" (Civitates orbis terrarum) was published in Cologne from 1572 onwards, comprised six volumes and is considered the first atlas of cities in the history of cartography.

On the left of the plan is the coat of arms of Baron Herberstein, and at the bottom are drawings from his book. In the lower right corner, within a frame, is a Latin inscription: "Moscow, the capital city of the country of the same name, twice as large as Prague in Bohemia…". The scale of the plan is arbitrary. On the reverse is a Latin text of 65 lines and the table number, 47.