I've always imagined, and understood Early Modern/Age of Discovery cities to be crowded and densely populated affairs where space was at a premium. Yet, many illustrations from the time period show large patches of green space within city walls. It often times looks like farm land, but I feel like that can't be right, can it? So, what is it? Is this just extra space within the walls for planned future growth? noble estates? Something else entirely?
You can find plenty of examples over at /r/papertowns but here are some examples:
And why wouldn't that be right?
Our conception of dense industrial-era cities seldom holds up in the pre-industrial era. Although I know much more about Italian urbanization in the middle ages, you might be interested in the ideas explored in this older answer of mine (that answer also links to some other answers that might interest you). A common misconception about walled cities is that dense constructions were built right up against the walls. Although city centers were almost always dense and crowded, it was common for there to be open spaces like gardens, orchards, and even animal pens and pastures as you moved father out. In some smaller and lower-density towns and cities, even in the town center areas behind homes (in other words, the areas not facing the street) could be green spaces. In the Italian city of Venice the word for field, Campo, is used to refer to a town square because the Venetian urbanization process typically saw houses built up on the edge of the water with a grassy field out back. In some Italian cities and towns, the word Campo is still used to refer to a large square, even if it has been paved over.
Building right up against a city wall is never ideal; density allows for the rapid spread of fire and disease, and in the agricultural pre-industrial economy having open spaces for livestock and some light cultivation is desirable. Plus, in an era that predated indoor plumbing, owning a city home with a garden, or even a courtyard, could be a major status symbol (not to mention the convenience, for an aristocrat splitting his time between town and country, of being able to send horses out to graze). Thus even in the oldest medieval towns, like Bologna and Milan, when construction began creeping closer to the old city walls authorities found it useful to build a second ring, if not out of stone at least out of wood. After all, walls are convenient markers of city limits, and a also convenient way to collect tolls from people moving goods in and out of urban spaces. Walls also keep livestock from wandering off at night.
In your pictures I can identify these features: church yard, the village green, small productive agricultural plots including fruit and nut trees, kitchen gardens and areas used to graze animals, keep chickens etc.
