Antique Print-PAMPHLET-PRINCE MAURITS-SAILORS-POLITICAL-Meerman-1612

Description This print shows a view on the title print of the Pamphlet ‘Comoedia Vetus’, published in 1612. At the top Prince Maurits seated at a table with seven men. He holds a stick of which a man with a headgear pulls in the form of a church building at the other end. In the foreground some sailors come to land and point in surprise to the scene above. It attacks the protestant clergy in Holland as being little better than their Catholic predecessors. Hence the title, which translates as ‘the old game’. Made by an anonymous engraver after Meerman. Medium: Engraving on handlaid (verge) paper. Watermark: fragment. Sheet size: 14 x 18.3 cm (5.51 x 7.2 inch). Image size: 14 x 18.3 cm. (5.51 x 7.2 inch). Condition: good, given age. No margin. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Please study scan carefully. PAMPHLET-PRINCE MAURITS-SAILORS-POLITICAL | RBOS-A10-31 BACKGROUND INFORMATION This attractive print was anonymously published, it is commonly accepted that the author was Willem Meerman (?-1612), a seafaring man. First published in 1612, the year that Meerman embarked on a voyage to America, from which he never returned. In this pamplet, Meerman uses maritime expressions as an allegory on the political situation in Holland.