# 1211
Incomplete set of 46 (of 54) 'Papacy' playing-cards: 'Nieuwe Constitutie Kaart van's Paussen gewaande onfeilbaarheid gestigt op dolheid en blindheid', etching on paper, Amsterdam, Pieter Waanregt, ca. 1715-1720. In 1713, Pope Clement XI issued a papal bull condemning Jansenism, a theological movement that attempted to reconcile the concepts of free will and divine grace. The Pope’s proclamation labelled Jansenist doctrines “false, captious, ill-sounding, offensive to pious ears, scandalous, pernicious, rash...”. Whether himself a Jansenist or simply a defender of religious freedom, Dutch printer Pieter Waanregt published the present deck of cards mocking the bull and the concept of papal infallibility (“Paussen gewaande onfeilbaarheid”). Each of the 52 cards in the deck shows a scene captioned with a satirical rhyming couplet. For example the Ten of Hearts depicts the Pope holding up a church, at the door of which a snake is hissing; the caption below reads “The Mouth and Lust for Power gives the church here in compulsion / The Pope who tests the heart of the truth with a snake”. In fact, the stories and scenes shown on the individual playingcards form three continuous plots, concerning papal wealth, papal power, and the Jansenist movement. (From: Daniel Crouch Rare Books, 'The Winner Takes It All', Page 47-48, London, 2025). This set is represented in many museum collections such as The British Museum, Yale University Library and Catherijne Convent, Utrecht -Wonderful condition-
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Starting price: € 100.00
