Guillaume de La Perrièrre, Le Theatre Des Bons Engins (Lyon, 1545)
Emblem 66
A man handing money to a lawyer, a ragged poor man beside themAI-generated
L'argent content faict playder Aduocatz.
Ready money makes advocates plead.AI-generated
Description of the woodcutAI-generated
A woodcut interior scene with three standing men on a cobbled floor before a wall hung with a large draped cloth. At the left, a bare-legged man in ragged, slashed clothing holds his hands together at his chest. In the centre, a bearded man in a plumed cap, cloak and short tunic with a purse at his belt stretches out his hand toward the figure at the right. At the right, a bearded man wearing a flat cap and a long, wide-sleeved gown (in the manner of a lawyer or judge) reaches out his hand to receive or touch what the central man offers.
Subscriptio
TranscriptionAI-generated
PRacticiens ont les mains pleines d'yeulx,Et voyét cler, quãd on leur faict largesse,Oreilles n'ont: car sont si vitieux,Que se fier ne veulent en promesse.Qui vouldra donc euiter leur oppresse,Conuient qu'aux dons il ayt tous ses refuges.Quand on leur dóne, ilz font par subterfuges,Du droict le tort, tant de raison foruoyent.Au temps present maintz Aduocatz & Iuges,N'escoutent rien, mais prénent ce qu'ilz voyét.
TranslationAI-generated
Legal practitioners have hands full of eyes, and they see clearly when one is generous to them. Ears they have none, for they are so corrupt that they will not trust in a promise. Whoever therefore wishes to escape their oppression must take all his refuge in gifts. When one gives to them, they turn right into wrong by subterfuges, so far do they stray from reason. In the present age many advocates and judges listen to nothing, but take what they see.
Iconclass
86(L'ARGENT CONTENT FAICT PLAYDER ADUOCATZ)proverbs, sayings, etc. (L'ARGENT CONTENT FAICT PLAYDER ADUOCATZ)44G16lawyer, attorney at law31D14adult man46A151beggar31A2245hand31A2212eyes46B311coin41D267purse, money-bag55CC11Greed, Covetousness, Cupidity; 'Cupidità' (Ripa)
Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated
Additional codes proposed for this emblem, not (yet) part of the indexing.
46B911briberyhighThe correlate 'bribery' directly matches the central man with a money purse handing something to the gowned judge-figure.
44G69bad, corrupt judgehighThe right-hand figure in the flat cap and long wide-sleeved gown of a judge reaching out to accept the offering embodies the 'bad, corrupt judge'.
59CC221Corruptibility, Venality, CorruptionmediumThe scene allegorizes 'Corruptibility, Venality, Corruption' through the judge's willingness to take the proffered payment.
33A41gifts being acceptedmediumThe judge's outstretched hand to receive what is offered literally depicts 'gifts being accepted'.
44G41litigation, legal proceedings, lawsuitmediumThe confrontation of a ragged poor man and a wealthy man before a judge implies 'litigation, legal proceedings, lawsuit'.
11H(IVO)111St. Ivo enthroned as judge between a rich and a poor litigant: the first offers him money, the second a petitionlowThe composition echoes the type of a judge between a rich litigant offering money and a poor litigant, though no saintly attributes or enthronement identify St. Ivo here.
Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated
Suggested relationships between this emblem and adages in Erasmus’ Adagia.
- III viii 35 Muneribus res agitur – thematic inventiohigh
The motto 'L'argent content faict playder Aduocatz' states exactly Erasmus's point that there is no place for honest dealing or fair argument, since everything is accomplished by gifts and bribery; the woodcut shows the suitor literally handing over money to make the lawyer act.
- III ix 83 Munerum corruptela – thematic inventiohigh
Erasmus's essay describes gifts as Mercury's wand that opens the eyes of dozing judges and makes them see; the subscriptio's conceit that practitioners 'have hands full of eyes' and 'see clearly when one is generous to them', having no ears, reproduces precisely this image of eyes awakened by bribes, as does the gown-clad judge extending his hand.
- III ix 8 Corrupta iudicia – thematic inventiohigh
The emblem's complaint that advocates and judges 'turn right into wrong by subterfuges, so far do they stray from reason' matches Erasmus's Hesiodic lines on those who pervert common law and drive out justice for private advantage.
- I iii 18 Muneribus vel dii capiuntur – thematic inventiohigh
The emblem's doctrine that one must 'take all his refuge in gifts' to escape the lawyers' oppression is the commonplace Erasmus documents here, that gifts bend even gods and venerable kings.
- IV viii 29 Pecuniosus damnari non potest – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus's Ciceronian theme that in the present courts money is all that matters and the well-lined purse cannot be condemned is the same contemporary indictment of 'maintz Aduocatz & Iuges' in the subscriptio.
- I iii 87 Pecuniae obediunt omnia – thematic inventiomedium
The emblem illustrates the universal maxim that everything bows to money, applied to the law courts: ready cash alone moves the advocate's tongue.
- II vii 43 Argenteis hastis pugnare – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus explains that what cannot be achieved otherwise is achieved by gifts and largesse, quoting Cicero that nothing is so fortified that money cannot storm it — the emblem's advice to seek refuge in gifts against legal 'oppresse'.
- II ii 72 Qui multa rapuerit, pauca suffragatoribus dederit, salvus erit – thematic inventiomedium
Erasmus's gloss is explicitly about keeping funds in reserve 'with which to bribe the judge and make him look the other way', the very mechanism the dizain denounces in advocates and judges.
- I vii 19 Argentanginam patitur – thematic inventiomedium
The Demosthenes anecdote of silver that stops an advocate's pleading is the exact converse of the motto, in which ready money makes advocates plead; both turn on the orator's voice being bought.
- II vii 46 Atticus moriens porrigit manum – thematic inventiolow
The woodcut's central gesture — the outstretched, receiving hand of the gowned lawyer — visually echoes this adage on insatiable greed for gifts, holding out the hand to take.
- II iv 87 Virtutem et sapientiam vincunt testudines – thematic inventiolow
The riddling adage that coin prevails over virtue and wisdom underlies the emblem's claim that money, not reason or right, decides cases.
- IV x 89 Guttam aspergere – thematic inventiolow
Erasmus's Ciceronian example concerns money passed to jurors named Bulbus and Gutta; it belongs to the same locus of bribed judges that the emblem depicts, though no textual borrowing is evident.
Sources
Record ID: embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem066
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embhab_162-3-eth-b_emblem066
Page in the digital copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek: http://diglib.hab.de/drucke/162-3-eth-b/start.htm?image=00079