Created after 1570 by johannes galle after an original drawing by pieter bruegel the elder. This work is a state d impression (bastelaer) created after pieter van der heyden’s engraving, featuring galle’s additional inscriptions of text from the old testament written in latin, french, and flemish. Along the lower margin, two sets of three distinct verses are inscribed – first in latin and followed by flemish, translated below:
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“quid modo diuitie, quid fului vasta metalli
congeries, nummis arca referta nouis
illecebres inter tantas, atque agmina furum
inditium cunctis efferus vncus erit
preda facit furem, feruens mala cuncta ministrant
impetus, et spolys apta rapina feris. ”
[the savage hook will reveal to all the riches, the vast heap of gleaming metal, the strong box stuffed with new coins among these great enticements, and the ranks of thieves. Booty makes the thief, the assault that serves all evil helps him, and so does the pillage suitable for furious spoils. ]
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“wel aen ghÿ spaerpotten, tonnen, en kisten
tis al om gelt en goet, dit striden en twisten
al seetmen v ooc anders, willet niet gheloven
daerom vueren wÿ den haec die ons noÿt en misten
men soeckt wel actie om ons te verdooven
maer men souwer niet krÿgen, waerder niet te rooven. ”
[go to it, you money-boxes, barrels and chests. It’s all about gold and goods, this fighting and quarreling. Even if someone tells you otherwise, don’t believe it. Therefore we bear the hook which never has failed us. They try to find means to silence us, but they shall not find it unless there were nothing to rob. ]. Date: c. 1558. Dimensions: 23.7 x 30.4 cm. Medium: engraving. Collection: Baker Library (Harvard Business School).
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