Gloria immortalis labore parta.

Undying fame is born of hard work.

Tortilis, & caudam ore tenens hic termite lauri
Ambitur anguis, & ligonem circuit.
Gloria continuos nunquam moritura labores
Sequitur, virensque in ore vivit perpetim.

The twisted snake, holding its tail in its mouth, is here encircled by a laurel branch and in turn winds round a mattock. Glory that will never die follows from incessant labours, and flourishing, lives forever in fame.

EMBLEMA, nisi fallor, ab Illustrissimo Car
dinali Granvellano ANTONIO PERENOT-
TO usurpatum, elegans cum primis, & illustri
laborum eius, virtutumque heroïcarum assecla,
recteque factorum comite Gloria dignissimum.
Videtur autem heros ille, cum omni posteritate
nominis sui memoriam qui adaequavit, innuere
voluisse, ingentes, ne dicam perpetuos esse exan-
tlandos labores, Herculis ritu, ei qui adspiret ad
amplissimum illud virtutis praemium, Gloriam vi-
delicet; quae concors est & consentiens bonorum
  Link to an image of this page  [E5r p73]rectè iudicantium atque incorrupta laus, eáque
perennis; quae cùm vitae brevitatem, tum iuges
laborum periculorumque molestias, sempiterna
posteritatis commemoratione solatur; hominibusque
per suos veluti gradus ab humo in caelum adscen
sum praebet. usqueadeò illa altissimi cuiusque &
optimi animum noctes, diesque exstimulat, ac-
cendit, atque concitat: ut per labores ad honestis-
simum illum verae virtutis fructum, eundemque im
mortalem pervadat; (nimirum exsulat hinc po
pularis illa fama, adumbrata quaedam illius ima-
go.) Sic ante Salaminem ipsam à mari obrutum
iri hariolatur non falsus Cicero, quàm Salaminii
tropaei, quod Themistocles erexerat, memoriam:
priusque Leuctra[2] Boeotiae funditus interitura,
quam Leuctricae victoriae, duce Epaminonda par-
tae, gloriam. Neque verò huius loci est, aut tem-
poris effusioribus habenis in istius heroïs labores,
atque inde natam mox gloriam provehi; cùm
singularibus ea commentariis debeantur. Pictu-
ra autem passim obvia est, ubi ligonem, qui
fodicat orbem terrarum, anguis mordicus suam
caudam ore tenens circumplectitur: eumque ipsum
serpentem laurea corolla medium ambit.

This emblem, cribbed, if I’m not mistaken, from the most distinguished Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle, is in the first rank of elegance, and most worthy of Glory, that illustrious attendant of his works, and of heroic virtues, and companion of righteous acts. But that hero, the memory of whose name is equal with all posterity, wants, it seems, to intimate that huge, not to mention unending, labours are to be endured, after the example of Hercules, by him that aspires to that greatest prize of virtue, that is to say, Glory, which is the unanimous and undisputed praise of all [p.73] good thinkers, pure and everlasting; which, life being as short as the troubles of its labours and dangers are unceasing, comforts men with the eternal celebration of posterity; and encourages them to climb as it were in their own steps from the gutter to the stars. To such an extent does it spur on, inflame and inspire whoever is brightest and best, day and night, that they come at length through their efforts to that most honourable, and that undying, reward of true virtue (and, make no mistake, that vulgar celebrity, that counterfeit image is banished). Thus Cicero was not speaking rubbish when he said that Salamis itself would sink into the sea, before the memory of the victory monument of Salamis, that Themistocles set up, and that Leuctra in Boeotia should be utterly destroyed before the glory of the victory of Leuctra which the general Epaminondas brought about. This is not indeed the time or place to loosen the reins and protract the labours of that hero, and the glory that was then soon born of them, since they require individual commentaries of their own. The picture meanwhile is in all respects obvious, in which the snake that bites, holding its own tail in its mouth, encompasses the mattock, which digs the world: and in turn a laurel wreath goes round the serpent.