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PAUPERTATEM SUMMIS
ingeniis obesse ne provehantur.[1]
Poverty prevents the advancement of the best of abilities
Link to an image of this page [A8r]
Dextra tenet lapidem, manus altera sustinet alas.
Ut me pluma levat, sic grave mergit onus
Ingenio poteram superas volitare per arces
Me nisi paupertas invida deprimeret.
My right hand holds a rock, the other bears wings. As the feathers lift me, so the heavy weight drags me down. By my mental gifts I could have flown through the heights of heaven, if malign poverty did not hold me back.
1. For the sentiment cf. Juvenal, Satires 3.164-5: ‘it is hard for people to rise when straitened circumstances stand in the way of their natural abilities.’
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- boulder, stone [25H1124] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm raised upward (+ reaching for somebody or something, seizing something, touching) [31A2511(+934)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards (+ holding something) [31A2515(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man [31D14] Search | Browse Iconclass
- coat, cape [41D212] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head-gear [41D221] Search | Browse Iconclass
- carrying something [46C121] Search | Browse Iconclass
- scholar, philosopher [49C3] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Progression, Forward Movement (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51L4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Rest, Immobility, Stasis (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51LL1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Regression, Backward Movement (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51LL4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Talent (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A13(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Hindrance, Obstruction (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54EE2(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Ambition; 'Ambitione', 'Amor di Fama' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [56F11(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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VIRTUTI FORTUNA COMES.
Good fortune attendant on virtue
Anguibus implicitis geminis caducaeus[1] alis,
Inter Amalthaeae cornua[2] rectus adest.
Link to an image of this page [B1v]Pollentes sic mente viros, fandique peritos,
Indicat, ut rerum copia multa beet.
The caduceus, with entwined snakes and twin wings, stands upright between the horns of Amalthea. It thus indicates how material wealth blesses men of powerful intellect, skilled in speaking.
1. This was the herald’s staff, attribute of Mercury, god of eloquence, intellectual pursuits and financial success. The entwined serpents are a symbol of peace. See Pliny Natural History 29.12.54. The caduceus was Alciato’s personal device and was carved on his tomb at Pavia.
2. Amalthea was the she-goat that suckled the infant Jupiter. Her horn became the cornucopia, the horn of plenty. See Erasmus, Adagia 502, Copiae cornu.
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