Fabriano.

A beautifully engraved and richly decorated town-plan of Fabriano, with in the center Piazza Maggiore with S.Francisco and the papal palace to the left. With a key (1-84) in bottom referring to the principal places of interest in the town.
From "Civitates Ecclesiastici - Theatrum Civitatum et admirandorum Italiae".
Joan Blaeu originally wanted to put two five-volume parts on the market. The first part, entitled "Civitates Italiæ", was to cover the Italian cities. The focus of the second part, entitled "Admiranda Urbis Romæ", was to be Rome’s monuments.
During his youth, Joan Blaeu travelled extensively in Italy, establishing reliable contacts along the way. Around 1660, when his plans for an Italian city atlas acquired form, he sent his son Pieter to Italy to breathe new life into these contacts. It was via his Italian contacts that Blaeu acquired the source material for the atlas. The main supplier of the illustrations and texts was the Italian philosopher and lawyer Carlo-Emanuele Vizzani (1617-1661). The texts on the reverse of the maps and prints also refer to other sources.
He ultimately only managed to publish three volumes in 1663: the volume on the cities of the Vatican State (part 1, volume 1), an incomplete volume on the cities of Naples and Sicily and a volume on the circuses and theatres of Rome (part 2, volume 1).
By the year 1672 a fire largely destroyed the main Blaeu workshop, and much of the prepared material. However, work on the town-book continued, and in 1682 the completed work was published in Amsterdam by the heirs of Joan Blaeu. The town-book was a great success and reissued several times by different publishers in Amsterdam, as late as 1726. Pierre Mortier re-issued all the Blaeu plates in the years 1704/1705 in an atlas comprising four volumes.

This is a superb example taken from the first imprint and very fine contemporary coloring. Very rare in this state and condition and the only edition printed during his life time.

Reference: v.d.Krogt, Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici, Volume IV-I.