Van den Elsken - Versamelinge van Verscheyde - 1790

OBSCENITY AND PROPAGANDA: WHEN SATIRE TRANSFORMS POWER INTO A CARICATURE
scatological illustration that shows a grotesque figure caught in an indecorous pose on a four-poster bed, while performing a physiological gesture rendered explicitly visible.
Satire ushers the reader into a violent and destabilizing universe: here power is no longer solemn, but exposed, degraded, and reduced to a ridiculous body. The engraving – set in a meticulously described domestic interior, with furnishings, drapes, and everyday objects – uses the contrast between bourgeois decorum and obscene gesture to produce a strong shock to symbolic order. The protagonist’s body, probably alluding to figures of ecclesiastical or political authority, becomes the target of satire that does not fear the scatological register in order to demolish the aura of power.
In this context, the Versamelinge van verscheyde stukken asserts itself as one of the most radical expressions of anti-Josephine propaganda in the Austrian Netherlands. The work does not merely criticize: it assaults, ridicules, and visually dismantles imperial authority, turning the book into a total polemical device, where text and image cooperate in constructing an imaginary of revolt. The engraving analyzed here is emblematic of this strategy: desacralization of power proceeds through its most intimate and humiliating exposure, in a direct, immediate language that is profoundly subversive.
MARKET VALUE
Complete copies with all 13 satirical plates are sought after and priced between 600 and 900 euros; higher values are recorded for fresh, well-preserved copies with contemporaneous bindings.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
A 20th‑century half‑calf binding with marbled paper boards; spine decorated with a gilt title and ornaments, signs of wear. Includes 13 satirical plates printed off text, complete. Paper with natural foxing and some stains. In old books with a multi-century history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 2 blanks; 148; 40; 40; 2 blanks; 46; 2 blanks; 4; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Versamelinge van verscheyde.
Brussels, 1790.
Johannes Josephus Van den Elsken.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
This collection sits at the heart of the political crisis of the Austrian Netherlands, when Joseph II’s centralizing and jurisdical reforms provoked a violent reaction from local elites, the clergy, and the universities. Van den Elsken, a professor at Leuven, uses the pamphlet as an ideological weapon, denouncing the “impieties” introduced into churches and ridiculing opponents through fierce satire.
The engravings represent one of the most innovative and aggressive elements of the work: not mere illustrations, but real visual acts of accusation. Through grotesque distortions, bodily allusions, and deliberately shocking situations, they translate political conflict into immediate and memorable images. The use of the obscene register is not accidental: it serves to destroy the symbolic distance of power, returning it to a human, fragile, and ridiculous dimension. The public, even the less educated, is thus emotionally engaged and invited to participate in a form of collective dissent.
The volume thus becomes a total political object: a militant pamphlet, a propaganda instrument, and a repository of iconography for the revolt. In the background, a true cultural war emerges between state Enlightenment and local Catholic tradition, fought as much with words as with images.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Johannes Josephus Van den Elsken was a lecturer at the University of Leuven and an active figure in the political-religious debate in the years immediately preceding the Brabant Revolution. He wrote under a pseudonym to avoid retaliation, distinguishing himself by the aggressive and polemical tone of his works against Josephine policy.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Printed anonymously in Brussels in 1790, the work falls within clandestine or semi-clandestine production tied to anti-Austrian propaganda. Circulation was probably limited but intense, with copies destined for readers involved in the political debate. The presence of numerous engraved plates makes the work costly to produce but extremely effective in its communicative impact. Complete copies are today relatively rare, especially with all plates preserved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
STCV (Short Title Catalogue Vlaanderen): registered edition (number to be verified)
De Kempenaer, De Brabantsche Omwenteling 1789-1790, no. 40
Brabant in Revolutie, nos. 79-80
ICCU/OPAC SBN: no certain occurrence (to be verified)
WorldCat: copies held in Belgian and Dutch libraries (1790 edition)
Roegiers, J., The Austrian Netherlands and the Brabant Revolution, studies on anti-Josephine propaganda