Cairo 1549
MATTEO PAGANO, 1515-1588

Inscribed: "LA VERA DESCRITIONE DE LA GRAN CITA DEL CAIERO"; "Stampato in Venetialln Frezaria per Mathio pagan al segno della' Fed& Opus lohannis Dominicus Methonel"; woodcut (985 x 1980 mm). Printed from 2l blocks lettered A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P O R S T V. Anther copy with a 7 sheets has been reported by Leo Bagrow.

This spectacular achievement of sixteenth-century Venetian map publishing survives in only one impression. The date of the map is deduced from the date of a booklet containing a numbered key to the map, that Pagano printed in 1549. It is entitled: Descnptio Alcahirae Urbis quae Mizir, et Mazar dicitur, Venetiis apud Mathaeum Paganum ad signum Fidei Anno Dom. MD.XLIX.

There is some doubt about the date of this Map. The map component and elements indicated a date before 1549, possibly  the early Sixteenth century. One of the important components indicating the date is the sitting of the aqueduct carrying water to the Citadel (sheet F) beginning at the Nile just above Old Cairo. That reflects a situation that ceased to be the case in 1508, when the aqueduct was apparently re-sited just downstream of the town. Other indications even suggest that the original drawing may have been made in the closing years of the Fifteenth century. Subsequent additions must have been made to that  original as is shown, for example, by the representation of the armies of the Ottoman Turk, Selim, who captured Cairo in 1517.

This map was the most important historical maps of the city noticeable for its accuracy and the care with which the woodcut was put together. It was the source for most of the subsequent Sixteenth and Seventeenth century representations of the city.¹

Cairo 1550
SEBASTlAN MUNSTER (1489-1552)

Cosmographiae Univeramlie, Basle, 1550.
" MEMPHIS BABYLON CAYRUM "
woodcut  (67 x 112 mm).

Although the woodcut claims to represent Cairo. It shows no identifiable features specific to the city as it was known. A standard city view was probably utilized.

Cairo 1572
GEORG BRAUN and FRANS HOGENBERG

CAlRVS, QVAE OLIM BABYLON, AEGYPTI MAXIMA VRBS’; engraving, hand-Colored (338 x 483 mm).

This map shows the most elegant view of Cairo. It  is a copy of the one published by Pagano. It is clear  proof of the fact that the the Pagano woodcut was  the best available description of the topography of Cairo in the Sixteenth century.