De Bello Belgico decas II Famiani Stradae Rom. SOC. Iesu

Title

De Bello Belgico decas II Famiani Stradae Rom. SOC. Iesu

Description

Among the most interesting decorative works of cartography is a series of arresting maps showing The Netherlands and Belgium in the shape of a lion. This wonderful, miniature version of the Leo Belgicus is based on the original 1538 Aitsinger form with the lion standing facing right with the right paw raised and holding a shield. This version is beautifully engraved with a stippled sea filled with ships, a sea monster and a compass rose. The De Bello Belgico, written by Famianus Strada, a Jesuit and teacher at the Collegium Romanum in Rome, was a pro-Spanish and pro-Catholic book on the Dutch war of independence.

dated 1648

Artist

Strada

Historical Description

As the province of Belgica - a name introduced by Caesar - what is now Belgium experienced many rulers. From the High Middle Ages to the early modern period, the cities of Flanders with their cloth industries represented one of the two centers of the European economy. Politically, the individual territories came under the House of Burgundy, which was inherited by the Habsburgs in 1477. In 1579 the Catholic Union of Arras and the Calvinist-Protestant Union of Utrecht were formed. The provinces of the Union of Utrecht broke away from Spain in 1581 and founded the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, whose independence was recognized in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 after the end of the Eighty Years War. The provinces of the Union of Arras, Flanders and Brabant were administered as the Spanish Netherlands by a Spanish governor. After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs (1700) and the resulting War of the Spanish Succession, the Austrian Netherlands came under the rule of the Austrian Habsburgs in 1714. As a result of the absolutist-centralistic efforts of the Austrian ruler Joseph II, the Brabant Revolution came in 1789 and the short-lived United Belgian States. Revolutionary France annexed the Austrian Netherlands between 1792 and 1794, followed by incorporation into the French Republic in 1795. At the Congress of Vienna (1815) the provinces were awarded to the Netherlands. After the Belgian Revolution, the country gained independence in 1830.