Link to an image of this page [E3r]
AERE QUANDOQUE SALU-
tem redimendam.
Sometimes money must be spent to purchase safety
Link to an image of this page [E3v]
Et pedibus segnis, tumida & propendulus alvo,
Hac tamen insidias effugit arte fiber.
Mordicus ipse sibi medicata virilia vellit,
Atque abiicit sese gnarus ob illa peti,
Huius ab exemplo disces non parcere rebus
Et vitam ut redimas hostibus aera dare.[1]
Though slow of foot and with swollen belly hanging down, the beaver nonetheless escapes the ambush by this trick: it tears off with its teeth its testicles, which are full of a medicinal substance, and throws them aside, knowing that it is hunted for their sake. - From this creature’s example you will learn not to spare material things, and to give money to the enemy to buy your life.
1. This is based on Aesop, Fables 153, where the same moral is drawn. For the information about the beaver, see Pliny, Natural History 8.47.109; Isidore, Etymologiae (Origines) 12.2.21.
Related Emblems
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Iconclass Keywords
Relating to the image:
- dog (+ movements of animal(s)) [34B11(+952)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- groups of trees [25G11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- hunt ~ rodents (+ hunting with dogs) [43C11126(+421)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal psychology) [25F26(BEAVER)(+47)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ animal(s) being wounded) [25F26(BEAVER)(+62)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ sexual organs of a male animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+3211)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- rodents: beaver (+ squatting, crouching animal) [25F26(BEAVER)(+534)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- trees (+ stem, trunk) [25G3(+21)] Search | Browse Iconclass
Relating to the text:
- buying [46B411] Search | Browse Iconclass
- enemy [33B5] Search | Browse Iconclass
- man and animal (+ castration of animal) [34(+511)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Offering; 'Offerta overo Oblatione' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [55C22(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Preservation, Sustenance; 'Salvezza', 'Sostanza' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [54E43(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Prudence, 'Prudentia'; 'Prudenza' (Ripa) ~ one of the Four Cardinal Virtues [11M41] Search | Browse Iconclass
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