Sigismundus I. D. G. Poloniae Rex Magnus-Dux Lithuaniae. Russ. Prus. etc. Dux.

The engraving depicts a half length oval portrait of Sigismund I of Poland (1467 – 1548), member of the Jagiellon dynasty, who reigned as King of Poland and also as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until 1548. Earlier, Sigismund had been invested as Duke of Silesia. A successful monarch and a great patron of arts, he established Polish suzerainty over Ducal Prussia (East Prussia) and incorporated the duchy of Mazovia into the Polish state, securing the nation's wealth, culture and power.
Sigismund I, the fifth son of Casimir IV and Elisabeth of Habsburg, had ruled Glogów, Silesia, since 1499 and became margrave of Lusatia and governor of all Silesia in 1504. In a short time his judicial and administrative reforms transformed those territories into model states. He succeeded his brother Alexander I as grand prince of Lithuania and king of Poland in 1506. Although he established fiscal and monetary reforms, he often clashed with the Polish Diet over extensions of royal power.
Sigismund added the duchy of Mazovia (now the province of Warsaw) to the Polish state after the death, in 1529, of the last of its Piast dynasty rulers. Again under the command of Tarnowski, Sigismund’s army defeated the invading forces of Moldavia at Obertyn in 1531 and Muscovy in 1535, thereby safeguarding Poland’s eastern borders.

Sigismund, influenced by his wife, brought Italian artists to Kraków and promoted the development of the Polish variety of the Italian Renaissance.

Nicolaes de Clerck (de Klerc) was active as engraver and publisher in Delft from 1599-1621.
Included in the rare book : Wereld Spiegel, waer in vertoontword de Beschryvinge der Rijken Staten, ende vorstendommen des gantsen Aerdbodems… which was a Dutch translation of "Les estats, empires et principautez de monde" by Pierre Davity.