Pasquinade

thumb|Roman pasquinades beside the Pasquino statue in 2017. Postering on the statue is prohibited, and "pasquinades" must be placed on a side board.

A pasquinade or pasquil is a form of satire, usually an anonymous brief lampoon in verse or prose, and can also be seen as a form of literary caricature. The genre became popular in early modern Europe, in the 16th century,. Pasquinades can take a number of literary forms, including song, epigram, and satire. Compared with other kinds of satire, the pasquinade tends to be less didactic and more aggressive, and is more often critical of specific persons or groups.