BECANO, Guilielmo. [Leaf]

Sereniss. Ferdinandi Cardinalis infantis Trivmphalis introitvs. In Flandriae metropolim Gandavvm, Auctore Guilielmo Becano, S.J

      Antwerp:: Ioannis Mevrsi. 1636. hardcover. .. (380 x 295 mm) Torn right margin with loss, top cropped into semicircle. Engraved leaf, mounted. Engraved by Corneille Galle, after a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. . The image shows a classical warrior standing on top of a pedestal on which the titles are engraved; a host of celestial cherubs are descending from the clouds whilst the dead and dying enemies (Swedes) lie at his feet. The warrior is Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand (1609/1610) who defended the city at The Battle of Nordlingen, 1634, during the Thirty Years! War. The Catholic Imperial army, bolstered by 18,000 Spanish and Italian soldiers won a great victory in the battle over the combined Protestant armies of Sweden and their German allies (Bernadines), led by Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. In 1636 Ferdinand disempowered the last Protestant priests in the Spanish Netherlands, and continued his military expansion by capturing Hirson, Le Catelet, and La Capelle, and securing Luxembourg using the usual mixed nationalities of a Modern Age Army that included then Croatian troops, and reaching as far a stronghold in France as Corbie, threatening Paris. Also known as Don Fernando de Austria and as Ferdinand von Osterreich, he was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Infante of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Archbishop of Toledo (1619-41), and military commander during the Thirty Years! War.