Link to an image of this page [C2r p35]
Prudentes.
The Wise.
EMBLEMA XVIII.
Iane bifrons, qui iam transacta futuraque calles,
Quique retro sannas, sicut & antè, vides:[1]
Tot te cur oculis, tot fingunt vultibus? an quòd
Circumspectum 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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Relating to the image:
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- plants and herbs [25G4] Search | Browse Iconclass
- low hill country [25H114] Search | Browse Iconclass
- prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of [25I12] Search | Browse Iconclass
- clouds [26A] Search | Browse Iconclass
- floating in the air (+ variant) [31A2763(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- anthropomorphic beings with parts in greater number than normal (+ head, face) [31A442(+41)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Janus' head, two-faced head [96A128(JANUS' HEAD)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Precaution (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52A24(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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