The print in early modern England: an historical oversight

Abstract

This book provides an iconographic survey of the single-sheet prints produced in Britain during the early modern era and brings to light some very recent discoveries. This large body of material is treated thematically, and within each theme, chronologically. Chapters are devoted to portents and prodigies, the formal moralities and doctrines of Christianity, the sects of Christianity, and the often vicious satire of the Catholic confession (but also of Protestant non-conformists) visual satire of foreigners and others, domestic political issues principally, the English Civil War social criticism and gender roles, marriage and sex, as well as numerical series and miscellaneous visual tricks, puzzles and jokes. The concluding chapter considers the significance of this wealth of visual material for the cultural history of England in the early modern era.

Contents

Part I. A Structured World: Series and Schemata -- One. Numerical Series -- Two. Schemata: Emblematic Diagrams and Schemes -- Part II. The Body Politic -- Three. At Home and Abroad: The Tudors and Early Stuarts -- Four. 'These Distemper'd Times': The Civil War Period -- Five. At Home and Abroad: The Later Stuarts -- Six. Doctrinal Opponents: Anti-Catholic Satire -- Seven. Doctrinal Opponents: Anti-Protestant and Anti-Sectarian Imagery -- Part III. The Moral Order -- Eight. The Godly Life -- Nine. Sinful Pleasures, I: Folly -- Ten. Sinful Pleasures, II: Lust -- Eleven. 'Lerning us to beware': Portents and Prodigies -- Twelve. Death and Judgement -- Part IV. The Social Order -- Thirteen. A Topsy Turvy World -- Fourteen. The Place of Women -- Fifteen. A Picture of Society -- Appendix I. Texts of Selected Prints -- Appendix II. List of Prints Depending on German Originals -- Appendix III. List of Prints Depending on Netherlandish Originals, or Issued in English in the Netherlands -- Appendix IV. Biblical Prints -- Appendix V. Advertising Bill of Humphrey Bromley.