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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [G5r p105]

Doctos doctis obloqui nefas esse.

It is wicked for scholars to wrangle with other scholars

Bird flying to its nest inside a ruined building with food
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Quid rapis heu Progne vocalem saeva Cicadam,
Pignoribusque tuis fercula dira paras?[1]
Ac stridula stridulam[2], vernam verna, hospita laedis
Hospitam, & aligeram penniger ales avem?
Ergo abiice hanc praedam, nam musica pectora summum est,
Alterum ab alterius dente perire nefas.

Alas, Procne, why, cruel bird, do you sieze on the melodious cicada and prepare a dreadful banquet for your young? A whistler yourself, you harm the shrill singer; a summer visitor, you hurt another fine-weather caller; a guest, you harm a guest; a feathered bird, you hurt another winged creature. So let this prize go. It is the greatest sin for hearts devoted to the Muses to perish by one another’s tooth.

Notes:

1.  The reference is to the legend of Procne’s metamorphosis into a swallow. See [A50a070]. For swallows catching cicadas, see Aelian, De natura animalium 8.6.

2.  Textual variant: Stridula stridentem.

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  • discussion, dialogue, dispute ~ scholar, philosopher [49C40] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Similarity, Likeness [51B2] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Denial, Negation [52CC2] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Disagreement, Discord; 'Discordia' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54EE31(+4):51B3(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Malevolence, Maliciousness; 'Malevolenza', 'Malignità', 'Malvagità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [57AA7(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • (story of the) Muses; 'Muse' (Ripa) [92D4] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Philomela, Procne and Tereus changed into nightingale, swallow, hoopoe (or hawk): Tereus seeks to kill Philomela and Procne for having slain his son; in their flight the two sisters are changed into a nightingale and a swallow; Tereus is changed into a ho [97DD23] Search | Browse Iconclass

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E8v]

EI QUI SEMEL SUA PRO-
degerit aliena credi non
oportere.

Others’ property should not be entrusted to a person who has once squandered his own

Statue of a woman killing her children
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Cholchidos in gremio nidum quid congeris? heu
Nescia cur pullos tam male credis avis.
Dira parens Medaea suos saevissima natos
Perdidit, & speras parcat ut illa tuis.[1]

Why do you build your nest in the bosom of the woman from Colchis? Alas, ignorant bird, why do you entrust your nestlings so mistakenly? That frightful mother, Medea, in her savagery slew her own children. Do you expect her to spare yours?

Notes:

1.  This is based on Anthologia graeca 9.346, a much-translated epigram, on the subject of a swallow that built her nest on a representation of Medea. Colchidos, ‘of the woman from Colchis’, refers to Medea, from Colchis on the Black Sea, who slew her children by Jason, leader of the Argonauts, to avenge his unfaithfulness. See further [A31a034].

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