Map of the siege of Groningen, 1672 (Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands) 53°13ʹ09ʺN 06°34ʹ00ʺE

A view of the siege of Groningen, 21 July-28 August 1672, by Christoph Bernhard von Galen (1606-78), Prince-Bishop of Münster, resisted by the Dutch, commanded by Lieutenant-General Carl von Rabenhaupt (1602-75) who repelled the attack. Franco-Dutch War (1672-8).

Letterpress text, entitled ‘Oprecht Verhaal, Hodanigh de Stadt GROENINGEN’, containing an account of the action and the explanation to the letters and numbers on the view, was published by Marcus Doornick of Amsterdam, and printed on the same sheet of paper as the map and view. This text is not present in the Royal Collection.

The map is oriented with east to top and shows the approaches of the forces of the Bishoprick of Münster on the south side of the tree-lined ramparts of the fortified walls of Groningen. The parallels and the batteries lobbing in mortar fire are placed between the three principal roads leading into the city.

Beneath the map is a smaller scale location map for Groningen. This is surmounted by the emblem of Groningen: a double-headed eagle with shield above a lion's head and flanked by olive branches. To the left of this device reclines a woman holding a mirror entwined with a serpent in her left hand and, in her right, a sieve containing two apples or perhaps pomegranates; to the right sits a man in Roman military dress and helmet, holding a Corinthian column. The feet and tail of the lion protrude from the bottom of the small map.

The view, which is engraved below the map, is taken from the left of the central road, as shown on the map, in a position close to the town, just behind the two mortar batteries which are labelled ‘g’ on the map. In the foreground of the view, a group of pioneers trudges along the zig-zag trench carrying bundles of faggots and timber frameworks in order to build defences and batteries while, at the same time, wounded soldiers are being brought out on stretchers; batteries, which have been built up on earthworks and protected by fascines, are placed at intervals along the trenches. In the right foreground, a group of men take baskets of cannon balls and push barrels of gunpowder up to the cannon on the battery where a man with a telescope spies out the next target. One of the two mounted men directing the attack, numbered ‘3’ in the right foreground, is probably the Prince-Bishop of Münster, Bernhard von Galen.

In 1674 the print was ‘opgenomen’ in Tobias van Domselaar's Het ontroerde Nederlandt … which was published by Doornik (see Landwehr 37). A facsimile of the 1674 map was published in 2011 by Peter Michiel Schaap, Anneke Claus, Gabriël de Graauw et al., Platform GRAS (Groningen).

Condition: two fold lines.