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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E2v p68]

In amatores meretricum.

Those who give their affection to whores

Man dressed as goat fishing
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Villosae indutus piscator tegmina caprae,
Addidit ut capiti cornua bina suo,
Fallit amatorem stans summo in littore Sargum[1],
In laqueos simi quem gregis ardor agit.
Capra refert scortum, similis fit Sargus amanti,
Qui miser obscoeno captus amore perit.

When a fisherman has dressed himself in a shaggy she-goat skin and placed twin horns on his head, he stands at the edge of the beach, and tricks the passionate sargus, whom desire for the snub-nosed herd drives into the trap. - The she-goat represents the whore, the sargue is like the lover, who perishes, wretched fellow, in the toils of unwholesome love.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3r p69]

Aux amoureux des putaines.

Sargus poisson aymant la Chievre,
Veit ung pescheur ainsi vestu,
Il prend a coup damours la fievre,
Et sest aux filez embatu:
Cecy monstre a maint fol testu,
Que aux latz damours ne se doibt rendre,
Car apres dommage sentu,
Temps nest plus de saigesse entendre.

Notes:

1.  A sort of fish, possibly the sea-bream, believed to be unable to resist the smell of she-goats. See Aelian, De natura animalium 1.23.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E3v p70]

Albucii ad D. Alciatum, suadens, ut de tu-
multibus Italicis se subducat, & in
Gallia profiteatur.[1]

Sent by Albutius to Alciato urging him to withdraw from the Italian troubles and take up a teaching post in France

Man holding out a basket of fruit
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Quae dedit hos fructus arbor,[2] coelo advena nostro,
Venit ab Eoo Persidis axe priùs.
Translatu facta est melior, quae noxia quondam
In patria, hîc nobis dulcia poma gerit.
Fert folium linguae, fert poma simillima cordi,
Alciate hinc vitam degere disce tuam.
Tu procul à patria[3] in precio es maiore futurus,
Multùm corde sapis, nec minùs ore vales.

The tree that gave us these fruits, a stranger to our skies, came formerly from the eastern climes of Persia. By the transplanting it was made better. The tree that once bore harmful fruits in its native land, here bears sweet ones for us. It carries leaves like a tongue, fruits like a heart. Alciato, learn from it how to spend your life. Far from your own country, you will be held in greater esteem. You are wise in heart, and no less effective in speech.

Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [E4r p71]

Albutius persuade que Alciat laisse les
tumultes Ditalie, & vienne en
France.

La Pesche es regions de Perse
Est venin & mort aux mangeans:
En aultres lieux est moins perverse,
Et rend bonne pasture aux gens:
Ainsi est il de maintz regens,
A cueur scavant langue diserte:
Que leurs lieux prestement changeans,
Changent tout malheur & disette.

Notes:

1.  This person has been identified as Aurelius Albutius, lawyer, scholar and poet, like Alciato originally from Milan. On the question of the genuineness of this ascription and a suggested date for the epigram preceding Alciato’s first removal to France in 1518, see J. Köhler, Der ‘Emblematum liber’ von Andreas Alciatus (1492-1550) (Hildesheim: August Lax, 1986).

2.  ‘The tree that gave us these fruits’, i.e. the peach, with its heart-shaped fruit and tongue-shaped leaves.

3.  ‘Far from your own country’. Alciato had two periods in France. He was lecturing on Civil Law in Avignon from 1518-1522, then returned to Milan. He again took up his teaching post in Avignon in 1527, and then removed to Bourges, where he remained until his return to Italy (Pavia) in 1533. The ‘troubles’ mentioned could be political (there was much fighting and tumult in N. Italy), or could refer to the wrangling between rival schools of academic lawyers during Alciato’s youth.

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