Permanent School Council of Europe

This Dutch wood engraving presents ten European nations as animals—lion, horse, eagle, donkey, ox, bear, fish, cow, dog, and spider—each labeled with satirical verses in Flemish. The print exemplifies the political cartoon tradition descending from Hogarth and Gillray through 19th-century German Bilderbögen: allegorical animal satire mocking diplomatic folly. Published in a Leiden student almanac, it channels Enlightenment visual rhetoric into student humor. Such prints circulated widely among educated classes and established visual-verbal conventions later adopted by early comic strips, where anthropomorphic characters carried national and class identities.