Link to an image of this page [M7v p190]
Aere quandoque salutem redimendam.
Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety
LXXXV.
Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit
Atque abicit, 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.
Link to an image of this page [M8r p191]
Das leben etwo mit gelt abkauffen.
LXXXV.
Der Biber ein faul und schwer thier,
Damit er sein leben erhalt,
Wann in die hunnd erjagen schier,
Beyßt er im auß die hoden bald,
Der man begert mit allem gwalt.
Wer gelt nit spart, gar weyßlich thuet,
Woelchs fur das leben wird bezalt:
Das bluet ist wolfayl umb das guet.
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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Relating to the image:
- 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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