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Pudicitia.
Chastity
EMBLEMA XLVII.
Porphyrio, domini si incestet in aedibus uxor,
Despondetque animum, praeque dolore perit.
Abdita in arcanis naturae est caussa: sit index
Sincerae haec volucris certa pudicitiae.[1]
If the wife in its master’s house is unfaithful, the moorhen despairs and dies of grief. The reason lies hidden in the secrets of nature. This bird may serve as a sure sign of untarnished chastity.
1. For this information about the porphyrio (purple gallinule, a kind of moorhen) see Aelian, De Natura animalium, 3.42; Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, 9,388C: the purple gallinule ... when it is domesticated, ... keeps a sharp eye on married women and is so affected if the wife commits adultery, that it ends its life by strangling and so gives warning to its master.
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Relating to the image:
- shore-birds and wading-birds (with NAME) (+ animals used symbolically) [25F37(PURPLE COOT)(+1)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of plants (herbs) [25G13] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (high) hill [25H113] Search | Browse Iconclass
- prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of city [25I12] Search | Browse Iconclass
- landscape with ruins [25I9] Search | Browse Iconclass
- border, ribbon, braid [41D2653] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- seeking death, suicide [31E238] Search | Browse Iconclass
- 'Castità ', 'Pudicitia', 'Vergogna honesta' (Ripa) [33C8120] Search | Browse Iconclass
- adultery [42D39] Search | Browse Iconclass
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