Panoramic views. A journey through the cities of the world

There was a time when travel books were written by poets, fantastical stories were told by storytellers, and maps were painted by artists. That was the Golden Age of maps: between the Casa de la Contratación in Seville and Ortelius's atlas in Antwerp. Marvelous legends gave way to geographical certainties. Cartographers, besides guarding state secrets, managed to create a seductive beauty in their works of art. The iridescent poetry of maps had just been born.

The discoveries of the New World awakened the Iberian dream of "Plus Ultra!" Global trade and the Enlightenment aesthetic fueled the market for world maps among the cultured elites of Europe. In that fascinating climate, the German Georg Braun formed a team to undertake the publishing project of Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Six volumes of cityscapes from around the world, published between 1572 and 1617, would become the most famous collection of urban views and portraits of their people in history.
Five hundred years later, we write these humble Panoramas, offering a modern perspective on the cities of the terrestrial and even celestial world. They are preceded by the memory of panoramas as a visual spectacle, the shift from a frontal to a vertical perception of the landscape, and an invitation to journey beyond! To this end, we have selected 38 cities following the criteria of Civitates, updating our view of their skylines and comparing their evolution through the ravages of time. This alliance between text and photographs allows us to appreciate the finest aspects of each skyline: from Madrid, the sky; from Florence, an artists' paradise; from Athens, the beauty of knowledge; from Tokyo, cherry blossoms; from Calcutta, the pride of poverty; from Cairo, the miracle of the Nile; from Cusco, a hymn to joy; From Antarctica, whispers of ice, and so on.

Ultimately, this book, with its loving prologue, is a beacon of multicolored lights from which to gaze out onto the balcony of the world, a gallery of words and vistas to revel in cheerful colors and delicate fragrances. Even if it is only a blue dot from a lookout point orbiting through space.