Emblem 36

Emblem 36

A man holding up a net to catch the windAI-generated

Impossible est de changer vieil abus.

Emblem 36. It is impossible to change an old abuse.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut in a rectangular frame: in an open landscape a nearly naked man strides to the left with legs apart, his arms raised above his head holding the two upper corners of a large, wide-meshed net which billows out to the left and fills most of the upper half of the picture. His head is turned back toward the net. In the background at the right are a fortified town or castle with towers and hills; at the lower right a rocky, pebbled ground and a few plants.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 36 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

QVi cuyde abatre abuz inueteré,Est bié frustré de tout ce qu'il pourchasseCar si souuent il est reiteré,Que l'on n'a rien a suyure telle chasse.Fort fascheuse est, & bien sotte l'audace,De ceulx qui ont ce lourd entendement,De prendre eux retz les ventz aucunement:Car tout ainsi, que cela n'est possible,Vn vieulx abus changer semblablement,Sans grand ennuy, on repute impossible.

TranslationAI-generated

Whoever thinks to put down an inveterate abuse is quite frustrated in all that he pursues; for it is so often repeated that there is nothing to be gained by pursuing such a chase. Very troublesome, and very foolish, is the boldness of those who have this dull understanding: to catch the winds in their nets in any way. For just as that is not possible, likewise to change an old abuse, without great vexation, is reckoned impossible.

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.

51CC19 No Result, Lack of Result, Inefficacy, Futilityhigh

The correlate 'No Result, Lack of Result, Inefficacy, Futility' matches the emblem's image of a man holding up an empty wide-meshed net (catching nothing, e.g. wind/water), the classic figure of futile effort noted in the commentary.

86 proverbs, sayings, etc.medium

The correlate 'proverbs, sayings, etc.' fits the emblem's reliance on a proverbial saying about the uselessness of catching with a net, as flagged in the commentary.

47K42 fishing netlow

The correlate 'fishing net' could cover the large wide-meshed net the man holds, though it is used proverbially rather than for actual fishing.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.

I iv 63 Reti ventos venaris – thematic inventiohigh

The picture (a man holding a wide net open to the wind) and the subscriptio's phrase 'De prendre eux retz les ventz' are a direct rendering of Erasmus' adage ἀνέμους δικτύῳ θηρᾶν / 'Reti ventos venaris' (to hunt the winds with a net), used as the image of a vain, impossible undertaking — here applied to abolishing an inveterate abuse.

I x 7 Impossibilia captas – thematic inventiomedium

The emblem's whole point — that whoever pursues the abolition of an old abuse is 'frustré de tout ce qu'il pourchasse' and engages in a hopeless 'chasse' — matches Erasmus' adage about hunting what cannot be caught, which he explicitly derives from fowling or hunting quarry one has no means of taking.

I iv 58 Ventos colis – thematic inventiomedium

Belongs to the same 'inanis opera' cluster with the wind as the type of what cannot be worked or held; the emblem's netting of the winds is the same proverbial figure of labour that yields no fruit.

III vii 38 Nunquam efficies, ut recte ingrediantur cancri – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus glosses the crab adage as 'what has been set by nature you cannot change by any effort', which is precisely the emblem's moral that an inveterate abuse cannot be changed, however bold the attempt.

I ii 61 Senis mutare linguam – thematic inventiolow

Shares the emblem's thesis that what is old and ingrained resists reform ('to labour in vain and out of season'), though there is no verbal borrowing.

I iv 50 Aethiopem lavas; Aethiopem dealbas – thematic inventiolow

A standard adage of the same family: an ingrained, inborn condition cannot be washed out, parallel to the emblem's inveterate abuse that no effort can remove.

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

Subscriptio

TranscriptionAI-generated

TranslationAI-generated

Iconclass

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Sources