ABSTRACT
The impact of the broadsheet on seeing it for the first time cannot be underestimated. The eye is immediately arrested by the scenes of unrelieved brutality and violence which escalate in intensity plate by plate until the final scene. Below the images is the script addressed to the devout Catholic Reader (Pio Ac Catholico Lectori) and the two prominent heraldic devices, the coat of arms of Cardinal Juan Álvarez de Toledo, placed on either side. Above that on the left is written in Latin: John, Bishop of Albano and above that on the right, Cardinal of Compostela. In both the coat of arms is identical but the emblematic additions differ. In the device on the left of the broadsheet, in addition to the two putti who reveal the allegorical information to us, there are two female figures. On the left a partly-clothed woman is seated, holding a sword in her right hand; she represents Truth. On the right is a similar figure holding a chalice in her right hand and a cross in her left. She signifies Faith and the true Church in which the Eucharist, symbolised by the chalice, unites the physical and spiritual realms, the foundation of the Church in Christ’s passion and death on the cross.
