Leo Belgicus

The Leo Belgicus (Latin for lion of Belgica ) was the 16th century a popular motif of Dutch cartography.

The basic idea

The first Leo Belgicus, engraved by Frans Hogenberg, published by the Austrian chronicler Michael Aitzinger 1583 in his History De Leone Belgico. The book deals with the Dutch History from 1559 to 1583 from a Spanish perspective. How Aitzing performs in the preface, is to illustrate graphically as a lion, the power and strength of the country struggling for its independence, the representation of the Seventeen Provinces. The adjective belgicus derives from the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, and referred to in the New Latin word the entire Benelux region.

On Aitzings card - as well as on most copies - is the lion on his hind legs with his back to the sea, facing the head and the right front paw to the northeast. The open mouth of the lion is a powerful tongue, long tail plays around the English coast. In later representations of the lion holding a sword occasionally in the paws.

Aitzing grabbed the Leo Belgicus to a further declining heraldic tradition. The lion as an emblem can be found on the coats of arms of all seven provinces, which later formed the United Netherlands, on the crest of some southern provinces ( Flanders, Brabant, Luxembourg ) as well as on the coat of arms of the House of Nassau.

Survival

The basic idea of Aitzings card was varied in the following centuries many times, now of course in Dutch- patriotic sense. Especially in the independent Northern Netherlands, but also sometimes in the south, remaining with the Holy Roman Empire of the country was the lion as a symbol of the former political unity of the Region. Known Leone Belgici Claes Janszoon Visscher come from (1609 ) and Pieter van den Keere ( 1617). The former published in 1648 under the title Leo Hollandicus first time a scaled down version that reflects only Holland. Jodocus Hondius finally designed a steady Leo turned Belgicus who looks in the opposite direction to the southwest.

" Leo Belgicus " is also the title of a historical memoir of Philipp von Zesen ( published in 1660; German version in 1677 as a Dutch Leue ).

Examples

Claes Janszoon Visscher (1609 )

Jodocus Hondius ( 1611)

Claes Janszoon Visscher ( 1648)