Section: SCIENCE. View all emblems in this section.
Link to an image of this page [O8r p223]
Les Antiquitez sont controuvées.
APOLOGIE. DIALOGISME.
D. Vieillard Proteu[1], qui has forme muable:
Homme par fois, puys beste dissemblable:
Quelle raison toute espece en toy mue:
Tant que tu n’has figure de tenue?
R. Je repraesente antique Poësie
De qui chescun songe à sa phantasie.
Des choses anciennes, & mises hors de toute
memoire: chescun, en songe & en divine à sa
phantasie: tellement que les aucteurs ne s’ac
cordans, font une monstrueuse histoire ou
fable de variables formes, tel que les Poëtes
faignent estre Proteus dieu marin, fort vieulx,
& muable en toutes formes.
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.
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- historical epochs [23T0] Search | Browse Iconclass
- symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ poetry; 'Poesia' (Ripa) [48C901] Search | Browse Iconclass
- history and archaeology (+ invention ~ scientific research) [49K1(+55)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Change (+ emblematical representation of concept) [51K1(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Invention, Inventiveness; 'Inventione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A42(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Fantasy, Caprice; 'Capriccio' (Ripa) [52A44] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Proteus [92H4] Search | Browse Iconclass
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Link to an image of this page [m8v p192]
Prudentes.
The Wise.
VIII.
Iane bifrons, qui transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas sicut & antè vides,
[1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circunspectum hominem forma fuisse docet?
Two-headed Janus, you know about what has already happened and what is yet to come, you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front. Why do they represent you with so many eyes, why with so many faces? Is it because this form tells us that you were a man of circumspection?
1. quique retro sannas, sicut et ante, vides, ‘you see the jeering faces behind just as you see them in front’, a line based on Persius, Satirae, 1.58-62.
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- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Precaution (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A24(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Janus' head, two-faced head [96A128(JANUS' HEAD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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