Emblem 42

Emblem 42

A donkey surrounded by monkeysAI-generated

Simplicité l'on repute pour vice.

Simplicity is reckoned a vice.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut landscape scene: in the centre a donkey stands in profile facing left, with a monkey seated on its back and another monkey perched on its head/neck; a further monkey climbs the trunk of a tree at the right edge. In the left foreground two monkeys crouch and gesture on the ground, and another small monkey squats beneath the donkey's belly. Hills, rocks and hatched clouds fill the background.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 42 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

SImplicité, selon le temps qui court,Est des meschantz reputee pour vice,Et mesmement entre flateurs de Court,Qui sont plongez au gouffre de malice.Vn homme simple est reputé pour nice.Qui ne veult estre aiourdhuy cauilleux,Sera tenu, pauure, meschant, pouilleux:Pour se vestir n'aura ne draps ne linges.Qui suyt la Court en ce temps perilleux,Il sera l'asne, estant parmy les Cinges.

TranslationAI-generated

Simplicity, according to the times we live in, is reputed a vice by the wicked, and especially among the flatterers of the Court, who are plunged into the gulf of malice. A simple man is held to be a fool. Whoever will not be a quibbler nowadays will be considered poor, wicked and lousy: he will have neither cloth nor linen to clothe himself. Whoever follows the Court in these perilous times will be the ass among the monkeys.

Iconclass

86(SIMPLICITÉ L'ON REPUTE POUR VICE) proverbs, sayings, etc. (SIMPLICITÉ L'ON REPUTE POUR VICE)

25H13 coast

46C13142(+7531) ass, donkey (+ standing animal)

25F22(+441) monkeys, apes (+ herd, group of animals)

25F22(+524) monkeys, apes (+ movement of animal(s) in relation to an other animal, human figure, or object)

44B152 royal household; courtiers, retinue, train

44B155 daily life at court

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

25F22 monkeys, apeshigh

The scene is dominated by several monkeys (on the donkey, climbing a tree, crouching on the ground), matching the correlate 'monkeys, apes'.

46C13142 ass, donkeyhigh

A donkey stands in the centre of the composition, matching the correlate 'ass, donkey'.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

I v 41 Asinus inter simias – thematic inventiohigh

The emblem's closing line — 'Il sera l'asne, estant parmy les Cinges' (he will be the ass among the monkeys) — and the woodcut of a donkey surrounded by mocking apes are a direct rendering of Erasmus's Ὄνος ἐν πιθήκοις / Asinus inter simias, used of a plain, simple man who falls among jeering, derisive company and is held a fool.

I vii 10 Simia in purpura – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus's essay on the empurpled ape turns explicitly on courtiers ('how many apes of this kind one can see in princes' courts', mere cobblers once stripped of purple and jewels), which matches the emblem's apes standing for the 'flateurs de Court' who despise simplicity and prize fine clothes.

III v 89 Pithon formosus – thematic inventiolow

The emblem's monkeys embody courtly flattery and false esteem, the subject of 'Pretty monkey', where the ape is praised falsely by flatterers; but there is no textual borrowing, only shared ape-as-flatterer imagery.