It is no secret maps have been used by those in power to promulgate ideologies. Each map tells a story from the cartographer’s—typically commissioned by the person or people in power—point of view. One popular technique employed by cartographers to politicize geography in the 16th and 17th centuries was to portray land forms—particularly those of empires and budding nations—as animals.
Referred to as a “zoomorphic” map, Leo Belgicus is widely considered one of the most well-known of its kind. This map uses the form of a lion superimposed over the Netherlands, or the Low Countries (present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg or Benelux Countries and Northern France). The map is still known by its original Latin designation, Leo Belgicus.
Leo Belgicus was conceptualized by Michael Eytzinger (1530–98) and appeared in his work on the history of the Low Countries, De Leone Belgico, published in Cologne (present-day Germany) in 1583. The lion faces east and spans the entirety of the land re