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Finely engraved Birdseye view of Nijmegen, engraved by Franz Hogenberg.
The view shows the action during the siege of Nijmegen.
The siege of Nijmegen was a military engagement during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo–Spanish War which took place October 17 to 21, 1591. The Spanish garrison in Nijmegen was besieged by a Dutch and English force under Maurice of Nassau and Francis Vere, which led to the taking of the city by the beseiging forces.
Michael Aitzinger was an Austrian nobleman, diplomat, historian, and publicist, who wrote and published several works, including a renowned volume that states the principles of a genealogical numbering system. His most famour cartograph work was Novus de Leone Belgico, first published in 1583 and expanded over the next decades, which included the first cartographic representation of the Low Countries as Leo Belgicus. The lion motif was inspired by the heraldic figures that appear in the coats of arms of several Dutch constituencies, as well as in the arms of William of Orange.
The map was published during the period when the Netherlands was fighting the Eighty Years' War for independence from Spain.