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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [a7v p14]

Gratiam referendam.

Show gratitude.

V.

Stork feeding its young in a nest on a chimney
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Aërio insignis pietate Ciconia nido,
Investes pullos pignora grata fovet.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [a8r p15]Taliaque expectat sibi munera mutua reddi,
Auxilio hoc quoties mater egebit anus.
Nec pia spem soboles fallit, sed fessa parentum
Corpora fert humeris, praestat & ore cibos.[1]

The stork, famed for its dutiful care, in its airy nest cherishes its featherless chicks, its dear pledges of love. The mother bird expects that the same kind of service will be shown her in return, whenever she needs such help in her old age. Nor does the dutiful brood disappoint this hope, but bears its parents’ weary bodies on its wings and offers food with its beak.

COMMENTARIA.

Inter omnes aves Ciconia pietatis symbo-
lum gerit: nam parentes senecta defectos
vicissim alit, & volandi impotentes humeris
gestat, ut Athenaeus attestatur & Homerus
lib. 4. Iliadis Isidorus in lib. de natura Avium.
Item de immensa Ciconiarum pietate Plinius
lib. 10. cap. 23. & pulchrè Aristophanes in
avibus, Ciconiae magna: cura alunt vicissim
parentes iam aetate deficientes, sola bonitate
naturae ad id agendum impulsae, inquit Ae-
lianus lib. 15. cap. 4. Ideoque Ciconiae imaginem
exsculpi olim solitam super sceptris re-
gum quò eorum pietas atque
Iustitia indicaretur, refert
Crinitus libro 4.
cap. 13.

Notes:

1.  See Pliny, Natural History 10.32.63: cranes care for their parents’ old age in their turn. See also Aelian, De natura animalium 3.23.

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [B7r p29]

Non vulganda consilia.

Keep counsels secret

EMBLEMA XII.

A banner with a centaur holding a club, with a band across the image with the letters SPQR
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Limine quod caeco, obscura & caligine monstrum,[1]
Gnosiacis clausit Daedalus in latebris,
Depictum Romana phalanx in proelia gestat,
Semiviroque nitent signa superba[2] bove:
Nosque monent, debere Ducum secreta[3] latêre
Consilia. auctori cognita techna nocet.

The monster that Daedalus imprisoned in its Cretan lair, with hidden entrance and obscuring darkness, the Roman phalanx carries painted into battle; the proud standards flash with the half-man bull. These remind us that the secret plans of leaders must stay hid. A ruse once known brings harm to its author.

Notes:

1.  ‘The monster that Daedalus imprisoned’, i.e. the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull monster kept in the famous Labyrinth at Knossos, which Daedalus, the Athenian master-craftsman, constructed for King Minos.

2.  According to Pliny, Natural History 10.5.16, before the second consulship of Marius (104 BC) Roman standards bore variously eagles, wolves, minotaurs, horses and boars. Marius made the eagle universal.

3.  Cf. Festus, De verborum significatu (135 Lindsay): the Minotaur appears among the military standards, because the plans of leaders should be no less concealed than was the Minotaur’s lair, the Labyrinth.

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