Blue crown = Sweden. A dog = the Turks. A frog = an injured French.
In and around 1645, at the end of the #ThirtyYearsWar, you needed advice, help and commentary to make sense of the imagery used in the media ensemble around you. Such advice was offered in the "Postilion".
1/x
In and around 1645, at the end of the #ThirtyYearsWar, you needed advice, help and commentary to make sense of the imagery used in the media ensemble around you. Such advice was offered in the "Postilion".
1/x
Three blacks in a yellow field = Spain and Portugal. Half moon = a Turk. Black clams = the city of Trier.
The codes needed to understand this visual language used in woodcuts and copper plate prints were orally explained and shared all over Europe. It has been called ...
2/x
The codes needed to understand this visual language used in woodcuts and copper plate prints were orally explained and shared all over Europe. It has been called ...
2/x
...the silent language of the illiterates. Imagery was understood by many - though often wrongly or incorrect or only partly, or with help by someone helping interpreting. And in war times, the codes of this imagery changed and developed rapidly.
The "Postilion" offered help.
3/x
The "Postilion" offered help.
3/x
The "Postilion. Oder: Erklärung aller Prophezeihung, Calender, Post-Reuter und Boten" (VD17 14:695004B) was likely printed in 1645. In war times, such advice was a bestselling pamphlet. It was published pseudonymous (by a lover of such codes) and had a few earlier versions.
4/x
4/x
A lindworm = the Spanish king. A dragon = also the Spanish king. Two yellow fish in a red field = Austria.
All this coded information was compiled, as the title page refers to: "Auß den Wapen, Genealogiis und vornehmen Historicis mit Fleiß zusammen getragen"
5/x
All this coded information was compiled, as the title page refers to: "Auß den Wapen, Genealogiis und vornehmen Historicis mit Fleiß zusammen getragen"
5/x
A laurel wreath = the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. A monk = Bavaria. A stockfish = Finland.
When making collectively and individually sense of allegorical and satirical printed images you needed visual training. Interpreting broadsides was a sport. #bookhistory
6/x
When making collectively and individually sense of allegorical and satirical printed images you needed visual training. Interpreting broadsides was a sport. #bookhistory
6/x
The title of this decoding pamphlet - "Postilion" - refers to a messenger or postal agent (with a horse) transmitting news in early modern Europe. The seventeenth-century witnessed the rise of postal services all over Europe. #newshistory
7/x
7/x
Messenger and postal services changed the news flows and news accessibility in early modern Europe. In fact, newspapers, handwritten and printed became an economic good. And this good, news, changed eventually the ways of interpreting.
8/x
https://twitter.com/dbellingradt/status/1229862121351065608?s=20
8/x
This economic good "news" was moved with increasing speed. Mercury, the fast traveling Roman god of messages and (uncertain) communication, became the symbol of the early modern news business.
9/x
https://twitter.com/Tweetistorian/status/1288542541382586370?s=20
9/x
News were recycled and rewritten all the time, but they all needed to be transported in order to be sold: in paper letters.
10/x
https://twitter.com/dbellingradt/status/1234932953089822723?s=20
10/x
Especially broadsides of the seventeenth-century built on this (written) news flows of the audiences, and used coded image details, like "blue crown", a frog, a wolf, an half moon etc., to condense as much information in one print. #bookhistory
11/11
11/11
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