Wagenlied, pagina 7 1641

This page, number seven from Wagenlied, was made by Crispijn van de Passe the Younger, likely in the first half of the 17th century. It is a simple piece of paper, printed with black ink, that would have been made using a printing press. At the time, the printing press was a relatively new invention. It enabled the mass production of texts and images. The process involved setting type by hand, inking the page, and then pressing the paper onto the type. It was still a labor-intensive process, but it allowed for the dissemination of ideas on a scale never before possible. The content of this page of Wagenlied is a poem about the perils of vice and disease. The printed page would have been an affordable and accessible medium. It offered a means of communicating ideas to a wide audience, and reflects the era's changing social landscape and the rise of a print culture.