Goltzius & the Pelican Company

Set in the late 16th century, Goltzius and the Pelican Company chronicles Hendrik Goltzius, a Dutch printer and engraver renowned for his erotic prints. A contemporary of Rembrandt and, in his own era, more celebrated than his famed rival, Goltzius wins the favor of the Margrave of Alsace by securing funding for a new printing press to produce and publish an illustrated volume. In exchange, he promises an extraordinary book of pictures that illuminates Old Testament narratives. The erotic tales include Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, and John the Baptist and Salome. To seal the arrangement, Goltzius and his printing house pledge to stage dramatizations of these erotic stories for the Margrave's court.