Section: Scienza. View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [p170]
SCIENZA.
Learning.
Che la Musica è amata da gli Iddii.
Music is loved by the Gods.
L’arguta
Cetra col
nemico a prova
Sonava Elpino;[1] e mentre al suono è intento,
Di
saventura inusitata e nova
Ruppe una corda, onde fini il concento.
Ma
in quel difetto una Cicala giova,
Ch’a
la corda suppli con dolce accento.
Ond’ei
di bronzo una Cicala dona.
A Phebo, accio di lei sia la corona.
1. Elpino is a stock pastoral character who sometimes plays the lute..
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Relating to the image:
- insects: cicada (+ animals used symbolically) [25F711(CICADA)(+1):48(+6122)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- insects: cicada (+ audible means of communication of animal(s): roaring, crying, singing, barking, mewing, neighing, chirping, etc.) [25F711(CICADA)(+49)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- table [41A711] Search | Browse Iconclass
- other architectural details (with NAME) [48C168(NICHE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- piece of sculpture, reproduction of a piece of sculpture [48C24] Search | Browse Iconclass
- lute, and special forms of lute, e.g.: theorbo [48C7323] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- 'Armonia' (Ripa) [22D110] Search | Browse Iconclass
- minerals and metals (with NAME) [25D13(BRONZE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Musica', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ music; 'Musica'(Ripa) [48C70] Search | Browse Iconclass
- inspiration of the musician [48C7210] Search | Browse Iconclass
- attributes of Apollo (with NAME) (+ variant) [92B38(LYRE)(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [P5v p234]
Musicam diis curae esse.
The gods care for music
Locrensis posuit tibi Delphice Phoebe cicadam
Eunomus hanc, palmae signa decora suae.
Certabat plectro Spartyn commissus in hostem,
Et percussa sonum pollice fila dabant.
Trita fides rauco coepit cum stridere bombo,
Legitimum harmonias & vitiare melos:
Tum citharae argutans suavis sese intulit ales,
Quae fractam impleret voce cicada fidem.
Quaeque allecta, soni ad legem descendit ab altis
Saltibus, ut nobis garrula ferret opem.
Ergo tuae ut firmus stet honos, ô sancte, cicadae,
Pro cithara hic fidicen aeneus ipsa sedet.[1]
Phoebus, god of Delphi, Locrian Eunomus set up this cicada in your honour, an appropriate symbol of his victory. He was competing in the lyre contest against his rival Sparthys and the strings resounded as he plucked them with the plectrum. A worn string began to buzz with a hoarse rattle and spoil the true melody of the music. Then a sweet-voiced creature, a cicada, flew chirping onto the lyre to supply with its song the broken string. Recruited to follow the rules of musical sound, it flew down from the high glades to bring us aid with its chirping song. Accordingly, so that the honour due to your cicada, o holy god, may last undiminished, on top of the lyre she sits here herself, a minstrel in bronze.
Link to an image of this page [P6r p235]
La Musique plaist aux Dieux.
La Harpe de Eunomus jouant,
Contre Aristone rompt sa corde.
Vecy la Cicade bruyant:
Qui le deffault du son recorde,
Et tant bien au lieu vuyde acorde,
Que Eunomus obtint la victoire.
Si feist en cuyvre telle beste orde:
Et loffre a Phoebus pour memoire.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 6.54. See Strabo, Geography 6.1.9 for the story of Eunomus and the statue he set up at his home town of Locri commemorating this incident in the song contest at the Pythian Games (celebrated near Delphi, in honour of Apollo, Artemis and their mother Leto); also Erasmus, Adagia 414, Acanthia Cicada.
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Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- insects: cicada (+ animals used symbolically) [25F711(CICADA)(+1):48(+6122)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- insects: cicada (+ audible means of communication of animal(s): roaring, crying, singing, barking, mewing, neighing, chirping, etc.) [25F711(CICADA)(+49)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees [25G3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- key [41A3281] Search | Browse Iconclass
- table [41A711] Search | Browse Iconclass
- piece of sculpture, reproduction of a piece of sculpture [48C24] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (LYRE) attributes of Apollo (with NAME) [92B38] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- 'Armonia' (Ripa) [22D110] Search | Browse Iconclass
- minerals and metals (with NAME) [25D13(COPPER)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Musica', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ music; 'Musica'(Ripa) [48C70] Search | Browse Iconclass
- inspiration of the musician [48C7210] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Diana (Artemis) [92C3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached [98B(ARISTON OF RHEGIUM)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- male persons from classical history (with NAME) representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached [98B(EUNOMUS OF LOCRIS)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
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