2010

Pamphlet Concerning the «Zweites Mailänder Kapitulat»

Place unknown, around 1726

Libertas suspensa – «liberty is suspended». In this cartoon-like picture sequence, the authorities are accused of selling out Graubünden’s interests and of corruption.

This draft of a pamphlet criticizes the «Mailänder Kapitulat» [Milan Treaty], which the Three Leagues had concluded with Austria in 1726. By means of this treaty, the political, economic and confessional arrangements, that they had already agreed upon in the first «Kapitulat» in 1639, were renewed. This divided the Leagues, because it threatened to expel the protestants from Graubünden’s subject territory Chiavenna. The anti-Austrian Salis party, in particular, campaigned zealously against it. Could the anonymous artist who drew this pamphlet have come from their ranks?