The true description of Cairo : a sixteenth century Venetian view

In 1549, a Venetian print maker, Matteo Pagano, published a large woodblock print of an aerial view of the city of Cairo; it was accompanied by a Latin text ("Descriptio Alcahirae") attributed to the orientalist scholar, Guillaume Postel.

The depiction of the city is sufficiently accurate to permit a detailed interpretation of the city to be made, and it remained the standard western representation of this fabled eastern city for the next 250 years.

Nicholas Warner provides a context for Pagano's view of Cairo, a translation of Postel's text, and a commentary on the contents of the print itself in addition to the accompanying narrative.

An index of subsequent revisions, and a superbly produced enhanced facsimile of the view itself is included.

Volume 1 (208 pages) includes 36 large colour plates, 5 black-and-white plates, and a modern facsimile of the original Latin text "Descriptio Alchiriae".

Volume 2 (208 pages) includes a modern facsimile of the original Latin text "Descripto Alcahirae", and 68 black-and-white images, all details of the view.

Volume 3 - the view of Cairo - is a 'modern facsimile' of the original view i.e. with blemishes etc removed, packed in a slip case.It is the same size as the original, and folds out in a similr manner to an ordnance survey map.

It is printed in two colours to match the original.