The 18th century chapbook (from around 1780) titled "The world turned upside down, or the folly of man, exemplified in twelve comical relations upon uncommon subjects, illustrated with twelve curious cuts truly adapted to each story", printed and sold in London (England), contains 13 (not 12 as the title suggests) woodcuts that depict scenes in which the roles of nonhuman animals and humans are reversed ... somewhat reminiscent of the Hindu "man with cow head slaughters cow with human head" type of drawings [scroll down to the very end] ... but a little less graphic.
Of the 13 woodcuts, 9 involve nonhuman animals, and 7 of these clearly depict typical scenes of nonhuman animals being used and sometimes killed for food by humans, just as is common today, only shown here with reversed roles.
Below you can see these seven "animal rights-themed" woodcuts in their original order:
[...]
[...]
The ox turned farmer
[...]
The reward of roguery - or the roasted cook
The duel of the palfries
[...]
The ox turned butcher
[...]
The honest ass and miller
The horse turned groom
The water wonder or the fishes lords of the creation
[...]
This is the book's cover:
No name of the author or the woodcut artist is given (as far as I can see).
The book also contains a poem which contains the following lines:
"[...]
Experience to our knowledge brings ;
That times may changes as well as things
[...]"
You can see the full book - reproduced as part of a 1882 collection of 18th century chapbooks (Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, edited by John Ashton) here.
Experience to our knowledge brings ;
That times may changes as well as things
[...]"
You can see the full book - reproduced as part of a 1882 collection of 18th century chapbooks (Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, edited by John Ashton) here.
-------------------------------------
"man with cow head slaughters cow with human head" [origin unknown to me; very probable: India; commonly found in some Hare Krishna books]
