Adspectus Incauti Dispendium  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Anonymous Flemish print, end of the 16th century, from The Waking Dream book.

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Adspectus Incauti Dispendium (1601, The cost of careless looking)[1] is a woodblock page from the Veridicus Christianus. The woodblock depicts "a house in the shape of a head, with a skeleton climbing up a ladder through a window, and is accompanied by captions in Latin, Flemish and French."[2]

The Latin inscription, which also serves as a chapter heading, reads ‘Quid, qui emissitios nusquam non iactat ocellos? / Hoc agit, vt pandas mors inuolet atra fenestras.’. The French caption reads ‘Qui laisse s’esbatre / Sa veue folatre / Quel malheur l’attend? / La mort aeternelle / Par ces trous eschelle / L’ame, et la surprend.’[3]

The plate is discussed in Vanities of the Eye: Vision in Early Modern European Culture by Stuart Clark.