
AEre quandoque salutem redimendam.
Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety
Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit,
Atque abiicit, sese gnarus ob illa peti.
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus.
Et vitam ut redimas, hostibus aera dare.[1]
Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.

Le salut se doibt acheter.
Le Byevre qui Castor sappelle,
Des veneurs, & des chiens presse,
Aux dens ses genitaulx expelle:
Car pour aultre bien nest chasse.
Ce mal rend plusgrand mal passe.
Sur quoy le prudent peult entendre,
Quil fault quicter bien amasse,
Premier que grand peril attendre.
1. This is based on Aesop, Fables 153, where the same moral is drawn. For the information about the beaver, see Pliny, Natural History 8.47.109; Isidore, Etymologiae (Origines) 12.2.21.
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- rodents: beaver (+ sexual organs of a male animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+3211)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal psychology) [25F26(BEAVER)(+47)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ squatting, crouching animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+534)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal(s) being wounded) [25F26(BEAVER)(+62)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with tower or castle [25I5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dog (+ movements of animal(s)) [34B11(+952)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hunt ~ rodents (+ hunting with dogs) [43C11126(+421)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- enemy [33B5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- man and animal (+ castration of animal) [34(+511)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- buying [46B411] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Preservation, Sustenance; 'Salvezza', 'Sostanza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54E43(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Offering; 'Offerta overo Oblatione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55C22(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Captivus ob gulam.
Caught by greed
LXXXVI.
Regnator penus, & mensae corrosor[1] herilis
Ostrea mus summis vidit hiulca labris.
Queis teneram apponens barbam falsa ossa momordit,
Illa recluserunt[2] tacta repente domum.
Deprensum & tetro tenuerunt carcere furem,
Semet in obscurum qui dederat tumulum.[3]
A mouse, king of the pantry, nibbler at the master’s table, saw oysters with their shells just slightly open. Applying his sensitive whiskers, he nibbled the deceptive bone. The oysters, when touched, suddenly slammed shut their house and held the thief, caught red-handed, in a noisome prison, a thief who had put himself into a lightless tomb.

Gefangen umb den fraß.
LXXXVI.
Ein schleckhafft und gefraeßig mauß
Ein merschneck in der kuche ersach,
Der halb geoeffnet het sein hauß,
Darein stieß sy ir maul mit gach,
Das yr der schneck knischt und zerbrach,
Wie er sich einzoch und beschloß:
Mancher kumbt noch in ungemach,
Der alles fraß wil sein genoß.
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- molluscs (+ shell, snail-shell etc.) [25F72(+36)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- molluscs: oyster (+ animal with prey) [25F72(OYSTER)(+452)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees [25G3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beach [25H133] Search | Browse Iconclass
- bush, shrubs ~ forest [25H153] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Gluttony, Intemperance, 'Gula'; 'Gola', 'Ingordigia', 'Ingordigia overo Avidità', 'Voracità' (Ripa) ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sins [11N35] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- Intemperance, Immoderation (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54AA43(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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