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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B1r p17]

Al Duque de Milan.

TERCETOS.

Shield leaning against a tree on the seashore depicting a coat of arms showing a child coming out of a snake’s mouth.
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De la garganta un niņo que saliesse
De una feroz culebra y enrroscada
Escudo ā tu linage es bien que fuesse.[1]
Qu’en otro tal su madre ser burlada
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B1v p18] Mostrō el Pellęo, donde claro toca  [M]
De Juppiter ser casta seņalada.
Y sale aqueste infante por la boca[2]
Por que este es el lugar por donde nazen
Unas de las culebras.[3] O revoca
La fabula de Pallas, ā quien hazen
Que nazca del cerebro de su padre  [M]
Los doctos que alos doctos satisfazen.[4]

[Marginalia - link to text]Alexandro magno.

[Marginalia - link to text]Juppiter.

Notes:

1.  The Sforza family had ruled Milan since 1450, having assumed power through marriage (some said fraudulently) to a Visconti heiress, and taken their symbol as their own. They were chased out in 1499 by the French, but restored several times.

2.  For the superhuman birth of Alexander, see e.g. Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 3 and 27: Jupiter in the form of a serpent mated with Olympias, wife of Philip of Macedon, and begat Alexander. Ammon, a north African deity, was identified with Zeus/Jupiter. When Alexander visited Ammon’s sanctuary, he was hailed as the son of the god..

3.  According to e.g.Pliny, Natural History 10.170, Aelian, De natura animalium 1.24, the viper, alone among snakes, produces not eggs but live young. See also Isidore, Etymologiae 12.4.10.

4.  The story of Pallas Athene springing complete and armed from the head of Jove is found in many sources; see e.g. Homer, Hymns 3.308ff; Hesiod, Theogony 923ff.

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