pasquinade
The anonymous satirical verses posted on Rome's 'talking statues' since the fifteenth century, aimed at popes and the powerful. Anonymity was the whole point.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Satire
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia
The authorship story
From the late fifteenth century, Romans glued verses to a battered ancient statue near Piazza Navona nicknamed Pasquino, and the practice spread to other 'talking statues' of the city. The pasquinades mocked popes, cardinals, and governments with a freedom no signed text could survive, and the genre gave European languages the word lampoon in its various forms. Authorship was necessarily secret; suspects over the centuries ranged from tailors to prelates, and the statues are still occasionally papered today. The pasquinade is anonymity in its purest civic form: speech that exists only because no one can be hanged for it.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote pasquinade?
Nobody knows. No author for pasquinade has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read pasquinade for free?
Yes. pasquinade is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
Related works
- Still unknown
Amduat
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book describing the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of night. Like all Egyptian funerary literature, it names no author.
- Still unknown
Book of Caverns
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book depicting the sun god's passage over six caverns of the underworld. No author is recorded in the tradition.
- Still unknown
Book of the Dead
The ancient Egyptian collection of funerary spells guiding the dead through the afterlife. Tradition associates such texts with the god Thoth; no historical author exists in the record.
- Still unknown
Book of the Earth
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition showing the sun's night journey through the earth god Aker. Anonymous, like all Egyptian netherworld books.