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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- 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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Section: GULA (Gluttony). View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [G1v p98]
GULA
Gluttony
Curculione gruis tumida vir pingitur alvo,
Qui Laron, aut manibus gestat Onocrotalum[1]
Talis forma fuit Dionysi[2], & talis Apici,[3]
Et gula quos celebres deliciosa facit.
We have here painted a man with a crane’s long gullet and a swollen belly, holding in his hands a gull or pelican. Such was the form of Dionysius, such the form of Apicius, and all those whom gourmet taste makes famous.
1. These birds were symbols of ravenous greed. The pelican is called inexplebile animal, ‘insatiable creature’, by Pliny, Natural History, 10.66.131; cf. Emblem 95 ([A50a095]). For the gull, see Erasmus, Adagia, 1133 (Larus: the gull will also fit food-suppliers because it is a bird with an appetite for fish).
2. Dionysius II, Tyrant of Syracuse. After his deposition, he lived in Corinth, and many anecdotes were told of his indulgent way of life there, including the story that he died of being overweight.
3. Apicius was a famous gourmet of the time of the Emperor Tiberius. See Seneca, De consolatione, 10.8-9 and Martial, Epigrams, 3.22: he spent a hundred million sesterces on food items and committed suicide for fear of starvation on discovering that he had only one million left. He composed two cookery books, but the one which has come down to us under his name is a fourth- to fifth-century compilation drawing on his works and several others (ed. princ. Le Signerre, Milan 1498).
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- water-birds: pelican [25F36(PELICAN)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- shore-birds and wading-birds: gull [25F37(GULL)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rocks [25H112] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- head turned to the left [31A2421] Search | Browse Iconclass
- standing, leaning, sitting or lying with legs apart (+ standing) [31A26114(+51)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- anthropomorphic beings with parts of abnormal shape (+ abdomen, belly) [31A444(+13)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- anthropomorphic beings with parts of abnormal shape (+ neck) [31A444(+615)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- anthropomorphic beings with parts of abnormal shape (+ neck) [31A444(+615):25F37(CRANE)(+3)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched sidewards - AA - both arms or hands [31AA2513] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm stretched sidewards - AA - both arms or hands (+ holding something) [31AA2513(+933)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adult man (+ three persons) [31D14(+73)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- various human types [32A4:11N35] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clothing for the upper part of the body (+ men's clothes) [41D223(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- gear for legs and feet (+ men's clothes) [41D233(+81)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Gluttony, Intemperance, 'Gula'; 'Gola', 'Ingordigia', 'Ingordigia overo Avidità ', 'Voracità ' (Ripa) ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sins [11N35] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Intemperance, Immoderation (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54AA43(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- specific aspects, allegorical aspects of Bacchus; Bacchus as patron [92L17] 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(APICIUS, Marcus Gavius)3] Search | Browse Iconclass
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