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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N2v p196]

Antiquissima quaeque
commentitia.

The oldest things are all invented

apologesis.

An argument in support of this view.

Figure of half man, half beast in the sea holding a trident.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Pellenaee senex, cui forma est histrica, Proteu,[1]
Qui modò membra viri fers, modò membra feri.
Dic age, quae species ratio te vertit in omnes,
Nulla sit ut vario certa figura tibi?
Signa vetustatis, primaevi & praefero secli:[2]
De quo quisque suo somniat arbitrio.

Proteus, old man of Pallene, whose outward appearance changes like an actor’s, assuming sometimes the body of a man, sometimes that of a beast, come, tell me, what is your reason for turning into all kinds of shapes, so that you have no permanent form as you constantly alter? I offer symbols of antiquity and the very first times, concerning which everyone dreams up what he will.

Notes:

1.  Proteus was ‘the Old Man of the Sea’, who evaded capture by constantly changing his shape. See e.g. Homer, Odyssey, 4.400ff.; Vergil, Georgics, 4. 405-10, 440-2; Erasmus, Adagia, 1174 (Proteo mutabilior). Vergil (Georgics, 4.391) describes him living near the headland of Pallene (on the Macedonian coast). The idea of Proteus as a gifted actor or mime-artist is taken from Lucian, Saltatio, 19.

2.  signa vetustatis primaevi et...secli, ‘symbols of antiquity and the very first times’. Pallene (see n.1.) suggested a connection with the Greek word παλαιός ‘ancient’, as the name Proteus was supposedly connected with πρώτιστος, ‘the very first’.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O7r f98r]

EMBLEMA CLIII.

Ex bello pax.

Peace succeeding to war

En galea, intrepidus quam miles gesserat: & quae
Saepius hostili sparsa cruore fuit.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O7v f98v]Parta pace apibus tenuem concessit in usum
Alveoli: hincque favos grataque mella gerit.
Arma procul iaceant: fas sit tunc sumere bellum:
Quando alia [=aliter] pacis non potes arte frui.[1]

See here a helmet which a fearless soldier previously wore and which was often spattered with enemy blood. After peace was won, it subsided into lowly use as a hive for bees; it holds honey-combs and nice honey. - Let weapons lie far off; let it be right to embark on war only when you cannot in any other way enjoy the art of peace.

Das CLIII.

Auß Krieg frid.

Bees round a helmet
[Click on image to enlarge]

Sich an den Helm den auff hat gführt
Der Stoltze Kriegsmann ungeirt
Der auch offt ist in grosser not
Worden bsprengt mit deß Feinds blut rot
Der ist jetzt geben den Binen
Zu eim Binkorb und Hauß drinnen
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [O8r f99r] Sie ire Wab und Honig süß
Machen mit fleiß on all verdrüß
All Schwert und Waffen seyen weit
Und man auch nicht ehe greifft zum streit
Dann so man mit keinr andern kunst
Erlangen kan den friden sunst.

Notes:

1.  Cf. Anthologia graeca, 6.236, where bees nest in what were once the beaks (projections at the prow) of war-galleys.

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