Mitelli, Giuseppe Maria (1634-1718). "Il mondo è per lo più gabbia di matti"

(The world is at best a cage of fools). Large engraving, 48.3 x 35.5 cm. Signed and dated "In Bologna 1684" on shields within the plate. Mounted at upper margin. Sl. greyish impression on cont. paper w. good margins and watermark "Panzi" (?) between 6 circles. A few sm. closed tears, central horizontal fold, creases and waterst. in upper right corner. Still a well-preserved copy for a print of this format.

A very rare and remarkable print, with know copies held almost exclusively in Italian institutes, such as the Instituto Centrale per la Grafica, which list this impression in its 1940 critical catalogue (481, p 00090). The caption at the top is a rebus (bringing to mind Erasmus' work In Praise of Folly, 1509), the Italian text in lower margin translates as: "(...) sooner or later everyone enters the cage, this one from hunger for gold, another from hunger for fame, some sing, others never open their mouths, one ruins himself, another enjoys it, one is manipulated by love, another by rage, one is destroyed by passion, another by deceit, finally either from working, or from great deeds, or from sayings, or from behavior, it turns out that the world is at best a cage of fools."