Link to an image of this page [D4v p56]
Ex arduis perpetuum nomen.
Lasting renown won through tribulation
Crediderat platani ramis sua pignora passer,
Et bene, ni saevo visa dracone forent.
Glutiit hic pullos omnes, miseramque parentem
Saxeus, & tali dignus obire nece.
Haec, nisi mentitur Calchas, monumenta laboris
Sunt longi, cuius fama perennis erat.[1]
A sparrow had entrusted her young to the branches of a plane-tree, and all would have been well, if they had not been observed by a merciless snake. This creature devoured all the chicks and the hapless parent too, a stony-hearted beast, turned to stone as it deserved. Unless Calchas speaks falsely, these are the tokens of long toil, the fame of which lasted through all the years.
Link to an image of this page [D5r p57]
Nom perpetuel des choses
difficiles.
Ce qui doit durer a tousjours,
Et par gloire estre pardurable,
Ne peult venir en peu de jours,
Ains fault labeur contollerable.
Calchas en veist loeuvre admirable,
Es oyseaulx dung dragon mengez,
Au temps que par guerre incurable,
Les Troyens furent assiegez.
1. See Homer, Iliad 2.299ff. for this portent which occurred at Aulis, where the Greek fleet was waiting to sail for Troy. Calchas the seer interpreted the eating of the eight chicks and their mother, followed by the death of the snake, as foretelling the nine-year battle for Troy, followed by success.
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Relating to the image:
- song-birds: sparrow (+ young animal) [25F32(SPARROW)(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- song-birds: sparrow (+ feeding and care of young) [25F32(SPARROW)(+42)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- song-birds: sparrow (+ nest, den, burrow) [25F32(SPARROW)(+421)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- snakes (+ animal with prey) [25F42(+452)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- snakes (+ climbing animal(s)) [25F42(+5222)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- dragon [25FF411] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- flowers [25G41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- a snake is turned into stone by Jupiter, after swallowing eight young birds and their mother (when the Greeks are assembled in Aulis before sailing to Troy) [97N72] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Industriousness, Assiduity; 'Assiduità', 'Industria', 'Zelo' (Ripa) [54A11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Difficulty (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54DD4(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Punishment; 'Castigo', 'Pena', 'Punitione' (Ripa) [57BB13] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fame; 'Fama', 'Fama buona', 'Fama chiara' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [59B32(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- sacrifice to Jupiter and Apollo: a snake swallows a nest of eight young birds and their mother; the augur Calchas explains the portent [94D12] Search | Browse Iconclass
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