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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A8r p15]

A Tresil-
lustre Prince Maximilian Duc de
Mylan, Sur le Blason
des
armes Mylan-
noises.

Shield leaning against a tree on the seashore depicting a coat of arms showing a child coming out of a snake’s mouth.
[Click on image to enlarge]

L’enfant naissant d’ung serpent par la bouche,[1]
De ton clair sang les nobles armes touche.
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [A8v p16] Nous avons veu d’Alexandre Monarque
(Pour s’anoblir) monnoie à telle marque,
Quand filz d’Hammon soubz forme serpentine,[2]
Se dist conceu par semence Divine.
On dict serpens par bouche serpenter:[3]
Née est Pallas semence du chef de Jupiter.[4]

Les Armes de Mylan portent d’or à ung
enfant de gueulles naissant par la bouche
d’ung serpent d’azur, qui denote divine no-
blesse d’origine, & extraction. Par ce que
aulcuns des plus grandz personnages du mo
nde hont este estiméz, engendréz de daimons
ou espritz, incubes, & succubes en guise, &
forme de serpens, comme Alexandre le grand,
& Scipion l’Aphrican, & les vaillans & mer-
veilleux enfans de Araxe, & Melusine Ser-
pentes, d’ond encore aujourdhuy on dict
estre descenduz les Nobles de Luxembourg
& Lusignan. Or aulcuns serpens (comme
l’Amphisbaine) produisent leurs oeufz, ou
serpenteaulx par la teste. Et le serpent es
hieroglyphicques signifie Sapience, qui s’en-
gendre au chef. On fainct semblablement
Minerve dicte Pallas estre née du chef de
Jupiter. Parquoy l’enfant naissant du chef
serpentin peut signifier divinité, & noblesse
de lignage, & Sapience de bon cerveau.

Notes:

1.   The Sforza family had ruled Milan since 1450, having assumed power through marriage (some said fraudulently) to a Visconti heiress, and taken their symbol as their own. They were chased out in 1499 by the French, but restored several times.

2.  For the superhuman birth of Alexander, see e.g. Plutarch, Life of Alexander, 3 and 27: Jupiter in the form of a serpent mated with Olympias, wife of Philip of Macedon, and begat Alexander. Ammon, a north African deity, was identified with Zeus/Jupiter. When Alexander visited Ammon’s sanctuary, he was hailed as the son of the god.

3.  According to e.g.Pliny, Natural History 10.170, Aelian, De natura animalium 1.24, the viper, alone among snakes, produces not eggs but live young. See also Isidore, Etymologiae 12.4.10.

4.  The story of Pallas Athene springing complete and armed from the head of Jove is found in many sources; see e.g. Homer, Hymns 3.308ff; Hesiod, Theogony 923ff.

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