Leo Belgicus

The first map in the history of cartography on which the geographical features of countries or coastlines of continents were transformed, with moral objectives, into depictions of people or animals, came from the Italian mystic, Opicinus de Canistris (1298-c. 1353). This symbolic style enjoyed a true renaissance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, most of all in maps known by the term Leo Belgicus. In this special types of map, using the outlines of the coast and the courses of the rivers, the Low Countries are depicted as a lion, the animal found in the coat-of-arms of a number of provinces. The first version was published in 1583 by the Austrian diplomat, genealogist and historian, Michael von Aitzinger (c. 1530-1598), in a work titled Novus de Leone Belgico.

The version presented here followed Aitzinger’s model and was engraved before 1609 by Hendrik Floris van Langren, who was chiefly known as a maker of globes. Van Langren’s innovation was to add elegantly dressed couples beneath and before the lion’s legs, symbolizing the provinces, enjoying a summer stroll. The printing plate of Van Langren’s work was bought by Pieter van den Keere (1572-c. 1646), who published the map in 1617 in the country’s first folio-sized national atlas.