This woodcut depicting the mythical creature "Su" was created by the renowned artist Christoffel Jegher (c. 1596-1653) for Juan Eusebio Nieremberg's influential natural history text Historia naturae, maxime peregrinae, libris XVI. distincta, published in Antwerp in 1635. Now preserved in the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, Belgium—a UNESCO World Heritage site housing the world's oldest printing presses—this artifact represents the fascinating intersection of early scientific inquiry, mythology, and Renaissance print culture.

Nieremberg (1595-1658), a Spanish Jesuit scholar, created a comprehensive work that attempted to catalogue both actual and legendary creatures from the known world, with particular attention to specimens from the Americas. The inclusion of mythical beings like the "Su" alongside empirically documented animals reflects the transitional nature of scientific understanding in the early modern period, when the boundaries between observation, hearsay, and inherited classical authority remained fluid.

Jegher, who served as court engraver to the King of Spain and collaborated with Peter Paul Rubens on numerous projects, brought considerable artistic skill to this illustration. His technique exemplifies the sophisticated woodcut tradition developed in 16th and 17th century Europe, which allowed for the mass reproduction of detailed images essential to the dissemination of natural history knowledge.

The woodcut's acquisition by the Plantin-Moretus Museum in 1876 preserved it as part of the legacy of the Plantin Press, one of Europe's most significant publishing houses during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. This illustration stands as a testament to the evolving understanding of the natural world during a period when empirical observation was increasingly challenging, but had not yet displaced, the authority of classical and medieval textual traditions.