Emblem 46

Emblem 46

A man giving a bone to a donkey and straw to dogsAI-generated

L'homme scauant pouure est, l'ignorant riche.

The learned man is poor, the ignorant one rich.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut in a rectangular frame. At left a bearded man in a flat cap, doublet and hose kneels or crouches on one knee, leaning forward and extending both arms to the right. With one hand he holds out an object (a bone) toward a large donkey standing facing him at right; with the other he offers something downward to two dogs crouching in the foreground between them, who are eating from the ground. Behind the figures is an open landscape with a pointed hill or mountain and hatched sky with clouds.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 46 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

Qvi l'os à l'asne, & au chien donne paille,Monstre qu'il n'est pourueu de grand'sagesse:Car ce qu'il fault à l'un à l'autre baille,En declarant sa folie & simplesse.Au temps present voyons telle rudesse:Car gens sçauants, viuent en indigence:Les ignorantz ont honneur & cheuance,Ce que deburoit estre tout le contraire.Plus que iamais (c'est vne grand' meschance)A pouureté doctrine est tributaire.

TranslationAI-generated

He who gives the bone to the ass, and straw to the dog, shows that he is not endowed with great wisdom: for what one needs, he hands to the other, thereby declaring his folly and simplicity. In the present time we see such coarseness: for learned people live in want, while the ignorant have honour and wealth, which ought to be entirely the opposite. More than ever (it is a great misfortune) learning is tributary to poverty.

Iconclass

86(L'HOMME SCAUANT POUURE EST, L'IGNORANT RICHE) proverbs, sayings, etc. (L'HOMME SCAUANT POUURE EST, L'IGNORANT RICHE)

25H114 low hill country

31D14 adult man

47I17(STRAW) agricultural products and by-products: straw

34B11(+1) dog (+ feeding animal)

46C13142 ass, donkey

34(+1) man and animal (+ feeding animal)

29A1 'mundus inversus', the reversed world, the topsy-turvy world, 'le monde bestourné'

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

46C13142 ass, donkeymedium

The correlate text 'ass, donkey' matches the large donkey standing at the right of the woodcut, to which the man extends an object.

34B112 dog with bonelow

The correlate 'dog with bone' fits only partially, since dogs and a bone both appear, but in the image the bone is held out to the donkey while the dogs eat something else from the ground.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

III v 14 Cani das paleas, asino ossa – direct mottohigh

The subscriptio's opening line, 'Qvi l'os à l'asne, & au chien donne paille', is a literal French rendering of Erasmus' Κυνὶ διδως ἄχυρα, ὄνῳ δὲ ὀστέα, and the woodcut shows exactly this: a man holding out a bone to a donkey while giving fodder to dogs. The moral of misdirected distribution (gifts to those who cannot use them) is Erasmus' own application.

I vii 24 Anulus aureus in naribus suis – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus applies this adage to exactly the emblem's complaint—'if wealth falls to the lot of a blockhead... public office to a man with no experience'—i.e. goods and honours bestowed on the unworthy while the deserving go without.

IV viii 38 Asinus stramenta mavult quam aurum – thematic inventiolow

Shares the ass/straw imagery and the theme of judging things by base appetite rather than true worth, which underlies the emblem's lament that the ignorant are rewarded and learning is left in poverty.