Emblem 51

Emblem 51

A pilgrim with a winged staff and a tortoise at his feetAI-generated

Le Pelerin en vieillesse s'arreste.

The pilgrim comes to a halt in old age.AI-generated

Description of the woodcutAI-generated

A woodcut in a rectangular frame showing a landscape with a bare, leaning tree at the left and low hills and clouds behind. At the right a bearded pilgrim strides forward, wearing a broad-brimmed hat with a scallop/badge, a short cloak with a cross on the shoulder, boots and a purse or gourd at his belt. He holds upright a long pilgrim's staff (bourdon) at the top of which a pair of outspread wings is attached. On the ground before him, at the foot of the staff, crawls a tortoise. Scattered stones lie in the foreground.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page of emblem 51 — Facsimile of the page (Herzog August Bibliothek); click to enlarge.

TranscriptionAI-generated

LE Pelerin laisse ses filz & filles,Femme & parentz, pour le Pelerinage,Affin de vendre au peuple ses coquilles,En luy monstrant, enseigne & tesmognage,Qu'il auroit faict aucun loingtain voyage,Cuydant qu'vn bien il ne sçauroit acquerre,Plus grand qu'auoir couru par mer & terre:Mais son courir n'a pas tousiours tenue.Bourdon volant, se doibt tenir en serre,Et sur la fin, faire pas de tortue.

TranslationAI-generated

The pilgrim leaves his sons and daughters, wife and kinsfolk, for the pilgrimage, in order to sell his scallop-shells to the people, showing them as sign and testimony that he has made some far-off journey, thinking that he could acquire no greater good than to have run over sea and land: but his running has not always lasted. The flying staff must be kept locked up, and at the end one must go at a tortoise's pace.

Iconclass

86(LE PELERIN EN VIEILLESSE S'ARRESTE) proverbs, sayings, etc. (LE PELERIN EN VIEILLESSE S'ARRESTE)

25G3 trees

25H114 low hill country

11Q621 pilgrim(s)

11Q624 pilgrim's dress and attributes, e.g. flask, hat, mantle, staff

25F3(+342) birds (+ wings of an animal)

25F44 tortoises, turtles

51M12 Haste

54BB2 Unnecessity, Superfluity

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

11Q621 pilgrim(s)high

The correlate 'pilgrim(s)' exactly matches the bearded figure with broad-brimmed badge-hat, short cloak, purse/gourd and pilgrim's staff.

11Q62 pilgrimage, pilgrim(s) under waymedium

'pilgrimage, pilgrim(s) under way' fits the pilgrim striding forward through an open landscape with his bourdon.

25F44 tortoises, turtleshigh

'tortoises, turtles' corresponds directly to the tortoise crawling at the foot of the staff.

11Q625 pilgrim badgesmedium

'pilgrim badges' matches the scallop/badge on the hat and the cross on the shoulder of his cloak.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

II i 1 Festina lente – thematic inventiohigh

The emblem's picture combines a winged pilgrim's staff (speed) with a crawling tortoise (slowness), exactly the kind of composite 'speed-with-slowness' device Erasmus elaborates for Σπεῦδε βραδέως; the subscriptio's closing couplet ('Bourdon volant, se doibt tenir en serre / Et sur la fin, faire pas de tortue') moralizes the same yoking of swiftness and deliberation.

III iii 38 Domus amica, domus optima – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus explicitly attaches this adage to the tortoise (the beast that answered Jupiter 'a loved home is the best home' and so carries its house about), which is precisely the creature set before the restless pilgrim who abandoned wife, children and kin to run over sea and land.

III ix 44 Domi manendum – thematic inventiomedium

The emblem censures the pilgrim for long absence from home, leaving 'ses filz & filles, Femme & parentz'; Erasmus' adage warns precisely that it is fruitless to be long away from home, abandoning one's property and household ('beware of staying long away from home, leaving wealth and men under your roof').

II i 2 Pedetentim – thematic inventiomedium

The closing injunction to go 'pas de tortue' at life's end restates the proverbial counsel of proceeding step by step, slowly and cautiously rather than headlong, which is the point of κατὰ ποδὸς βάσιν / pedetentim.

III i 13 Domi manere oportet belle fortunatum – thematic inventiolow

The pilgrim's belief that no greater good exists than 'auoir couru par mer & terre' is the opposite of the adage's advice that the man who is well off should stay at home rather than hazard himself abroad.

III x 38 Domus optima – thematic inventiolow

The wandering, homeless pilgrim whose 'courir n'a pas tousiours tenue' illustrates Erasmus' point that 'nothing is more wretched than wandering with no fixed abode', a moral the emblem's tortoise (home-carrier) reinforces.