The ghost of Erasmus flees his native city of Rotterdam as its finances are corrupted by the purchase of inflated stock during the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

The following is based on the British Museum online catalogue. On the right, a woman with a mouse-trap on her head (1), representing Fraud, blows with bellows into the head (though the lettering says: into the ear) of a Rotterdam financier (2) who tramples on the scales representing fair trade. In his left hand he holds a rope, with his right hand he throws out worthless share certificates, and behind him is a fishing net with two rods

In the centre stands Erasmus (3), dressed as a pilgrim, looking in horror at the financier and holding the hand of Mercury (4) who points to the coats-of-arms of Amsterdam, Haarlem and Leiden suspended on an obelisk. A cherub with a trumpet, representing fame, crowns the obelisk with a laurel wreath and declares that in those towns the government keeps control of investments

On the left, a man (5) holds up a set of keys to a treasure chest and points out its contents to another man (6) who is horrified to find that its contents are only cabbages and a pair of bellows; a spade lies against the chest beside four empty money-bags. Behind, two men (7) fling themselves from a high rock into the sea. A winged ship (8) flies over the sea where a man (9) struggles in the waves; above, the sun (10) is eclipsed. In the sky to the right of the obelisk, are a larger flying ship (11), a bat (12) and a stork (13); a windmill appears on the horizon. In the foreground a monkey is burning incriminating papers

[Amsterdam] : [publisher not identified], [1720?]

1 print : etching ; platemark 33.9 x 25.5 cm

De eklips der zuider zon doet veele in 't duister zitten veroorzaakt door de onpolitike Maan der Brn De rottege blaas-balg en de geest van Erasmus zwervende uit zyn geboorte stad naar de drie ongeactioneerde vrysteden van Hd L'actieux souflet, et le genie d'Erasme, quitant la ville, où il naquet pour aller voir les trois villes non-actionées d'Hollande Below the image, a numbered key on the form of Dutch verses engraved in four columns, of which those in the second column are spoken by the ghost of Erasmus ("De geest van Erasmus spreekt"). Below them, French verses (paraphrasing the Dutch verses) engraved in three columns, of which those in the second column are spoken by the ghost of Erasmus. The "eclipse of the southern sun" refers to the downfall of the South Sea company

'Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid', Amsterdam, 1720, is a collection of literary and pictorial satires relating to the Dutch speculation bubble of 1720, which occurred simultaneously with the South Sea bubble and the Mississippi bubble involving John Law. This print is one of the many in that collection: see A.H. Cole, op. cit.

Frederik Muller, De nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, Amsterdam 1863, part 2, no. 3550 (15)

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1954, no. 1654

Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949, no. 15

Wellcome Collection 811846i