Past is Present: l'Arboro della Pazzia on Melancholystories.com
Who said that history, the arts or the humanities in general are of no use to the financial markets? Look for yourselves: is the clipping below not a perfectly apropriate depiction of today's financial madness?
The image is taken from a late 16th c. Italian broadsheet depicting in thirty similar scenes the dangerous aspects of human interactions, professions or activities.The caption under this scene says:Dolce è ogni auanzo in qual sia modo fatto
per vendere e comprar stochi e bazari
dice i Merchanti per esser auauari
dice i Merchanti per esser auauari
(thank you Adèle & Marco for helping me read this fragment)
Titled the Arboro della Pazzia, the broadsheet had a satirical & moralizing purpose following the tradition of humanist books on folly like Eramus' Praise of Folly.
Melancholystories.com contains a British Museum reproduction of the entire engraving.
