Horoscoop der Jesuïten (Horoscope of the Jesuits)

This Dutch engraving satirizes the Jesuit order through a pseudo-scientific 'horoscope,' combining architectural spectacle with crowd chaos. Figures emerge from a grand building's windows as crowds below gesture wildly—a visual pun on fortune-telling meeting religious authority. The print exemplifies early 18th-century Protestant polemic against Catholic institutions, using the language of popular prediction to mock Jesuit influence and pretension. As an engraving with dense text columns and allegorical architecture, it descends from the Reformation broadsheet tradition and anticipates the graphic satire of Hogarth and Gillray. Religious and political caricature like this provided visual commentary accessible to semi-literate audiences, establishing strategies later adopted by newspaper comics and editorial cartooning.