HANS SCHAÜFELEIN The Inhabitants of Nuremburg Burning Playing Cards and Board Games in Front of the Liebsfraukirche.
Woodcut, circa 1510. 115x120 mm; 4 3/4x4 7/8 inches, narrow margins. A very good impression of this scarce, early woodcut.
This woodcut was derived from an event in 1452 at Nuremberg, during which the city population banded together to burn games of chance, inspired by the preaching of John of Capistrano, who is shown in a pulpit in upper left, holding out a Crucifix, with his name inscribed above him. John, an inflammatory cleric, was known as the "Scourge of the Jews" for his inciting of antisemitic violence. Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel their entire Jewish population. Bartsch 36.
