Emblem 1

Emblem 1

A man is tying a big old tree to a pole to straighten it, like the young trees in the background; another man tells him that this is a useless effort.

Rami correcti rectificantur, trabs minimeLatin

Branches that are corrected are made straight, a beam not at all.AI-generated

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within a large ornamental oval frame set in a rectangular border with pointed corner ornaments, an orchard scene. At the right a man in a flat cap, doublet and wide breeches stands high on a wooden ladder leaning against a tall straight pole or young tree-trunk; he leans out and pulls a withy or cord that he is tying around the pole. At the left, on the ground, an older man in a broad-brimmed hat and long coat gestures with both hands, one arm outstretched toward the man on the ladder, as if calling up to him. Behind them rises a thick, gnarled, knotted old tree trunk. In the background at left are the walls and gable of a house or town buildings, at centre a church tower and a garden house, and at right young saplings staked and tied to supports along a fence, with bare trees beyond. Below the oval, in the foreground, an unrolled banderole bears a line of Arabic script.

Subscriptio

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Facsimile, page 1 of 3; click a thumbnail to change page; click the page to enlarge

TranscriptionAI-generated

de Man (staende op de ladder) spreeckt NAdien ick stoffe soeck om my een huys te bouwen, Soo wil ick desen boom ter eerden neder-houwen; Het is een keestigh hout, maer vry al wat te krom, Dies poogh ick desen balck te buygen anders om. Maer schoon ick dien omvangh met hondert taije wissen, Soo moet ick evenwel mijn wit en hope missen; Hy is te wonder hardt, en al te bijster steegh, Dus blijft hy inden stant, gelijck hy eertijts pleegh. Doch, t'wijl ick besigh stae, soo hoor ick van beneden Een onverwachte stem, een onbekende reden; Een (ick en weet niet wie) let op het geen ick doe, En roept met luyder stem my dese lesse toe; Ey! waerom dit beslagh ontrent veroude basten? Hoort, macker, dit gewas heeft al te steege quasten, Daer is geen rechten aen, dus, lieve, zijdy wijs, Verlaet den ouden tronck en buyght het jeuchdigh rijs. Maer duyt dit niet alleen op raeuwe boom-gewassen, Het kan oock boven al op uwe kinders passen; Hoort, Vaders van het huys, de jeught, de teere jeught Dient van den eersten af gebogen tot de deught.

TranslationAI-generated

The man (standing on the ladder) speaks: Since I am looking for material to build myself a house, I will cut this tree down to the ground; it is sturdy, sound wood, but really rather too crooked, and therefore I try to bend this beam the other way. But even though I wrap it about with a hundred tough withies, I must nevertheless miss my aim and my hope; it is wonderfully hard and far too stubborn, and so it stays in the state in which it used to be. Yet while I am busy at it, I hear from below an unexpected voice, an unknown speech; someone (I do not know who) watches what I am doing and calls out this lesson to me with a loud voice: Hey! why all this fuss about aged bark? Listen, mate, this growth has far too stiff knots, there is no straightening it; so, dear friend, if you are wise, leave the old trunk alone and bend the youthful twig. But do not apply this only to rough tree-growth, it can above all be applied to your children; listen, fathers of the household: youth, tender youth must be bent toward virtue from the very first.

CommentaryAI-generated

1 passages · original left, translation right (click to fold)

Jonck rijs is te buygen/ maer geen oude boomen.

't Jegenwoordigh spreeck-woort is genomen uyt de Arabische spreucken onlanghs te samen vergadert ende over-gheset door den tael gheleerden D. Erpenium ghewesen Professor inde hooge Schole van Leyden; het selve spreeck-woordt vermaendt alle ouders ende voogden dat niet als de jonghe jaren sijn bequaem tot onderwijsinge/ende dat daeromme de selve tot dien eynde dienen waergenomen. Hier op heeft mede gesien Jesus Syrach cap. 30. 12. Buyget (seydt hy) u kint den hals, terwijl het noch jonck is, op dat het niet hartneckigh en worde. Veel spreeck-woorden onser eeuwe komen in woorden ofte in sin/ oft oock dickwils in beyde/ hier mede over een/ de Fransoisen seggen (als Scaliger betuygt) genoegsaem met de selve woorden: Cent. 2. prov. 66. Cent. 2. prov. 76. Franç. Vieil arbre malaisé à redresser. Hoogd. Alte baume seind bösz zu biegen. Alte hunden bösz bandig zu machen. Es moeth zeitlich krummen das ein guter hack sol werden. Ital. Fin che la pianta é tenera besogno drizzarla. Nederd. Terwijl het rijsje swack is/ so moetment buygen. 't Moet vroegh krommen dat een goede reep worden sal. Op den selven sin: 't Is quaet oude honden aen banden te leggen. Men mach sijn oude schoenen verwerpen maer niet sijn oude seden. De Hen is/ als haer wen is. Gewoonte maeckt eelt. Wat heeft geleert de jonger man Dat hangt hem al sijn leven an. Quae wennis/ quae schennis. Ital. Nutritura passe natura. Della matina si cognosce il buon giorno. Ital. l'Haver cura dé putti Non è mestier dé tutti. Turcks. Tagyri adeth gaiet mischkhiuldur. .i. Mutare consuetudinem difficillimum. Griecx. Γέροντα δ' ὀρθῶν φλαῦρον, ὃς νέος. .i. erigere durum est, qui cadit juvenis, senem. Lat. Annosam arborem transplantare. Eodem sensu adagium refertur ab Eras. Adeo à teneris assuescere multum est. Horat. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu. Cicero. Vt sementem feceris ita & metes. Petron. Vestes vinctas diutius ruga conficit. Vulgar. Vrit maturè quod vult urtica manere. Psittacus senex negligit ferulam. Franç. Ce que le poulain prend en jeunesse Il le continue en vieillesse Et ce que prend à la donture Il le maintient tant qu'il dure. Nouriture passe nature. ce que Plutarche à doctement demonstré par des raisons & par des exemples au Traitté Comment il faut nourir les Enfans. Spaens. Lo que en la leche se mama En la mortaja se derrama .i. Ce qu'on tette avec le laict au suaire se respond. .i. Dure jusques à la mort. Spaens. Castigar vieja, y espulgar pellon Dos revancos son. Franç. .i. Chastier une vieille & espucer un pelisson, deux follies ces sont. Syrach. 6. 18. Mon enfant appren doctrine de ta jeunesse, & tu trouveras sagesse qui te durera jusqu'a ce que tu auras les cheveux blancs. Syrach. 7. 23. As tu des enfans, instrui les, & leur ploye le col dés leur jeunesse.

A young twig can be bent, but not old trees. — The present proverb is taken from the Arabic proverbs recently collected and translated by the learned linguist D. Erpenius, formerly Professor in the University of Leiden; this same proverb warns all parents and guardians that only the young years are fit for instruction, and that they should therefore be used to that end. Jesus Sirach also had this in view, ch. 30:12: Bow down (he says) your child's neck while he is still young, lest he become stubborn. Many proverbs of our own age agree with this in wording, or in sense, or often in both. The French say (as Scaliger testifies) in almost the same words: French: An old tree is hard to straighten. German: Old trees are bad to bend. Old dogs are hard to tame. It must bend early that is to become a good hook. Italian: While the plant is tender it needs to be straightened. Dutch: While the twig is weak, one must bend it. It must bend early that is to become a good hoop. In the same sense: It is bad to put old dogs on leads. One may throw away one's old shoes but not one's old habits. The hen is as her habit is. Habit makes callouses. What a young man has learned clings to him all his life. Bad habit, bad ruin. Italian: Nurture surpasses nature. By the morning one knows the good day. Italian: To take care of children is not everyone's trade. Turkish: Tagyri adeth gaiet mischkhiuldur, i.e. To change a habit is most difficult. Greek: It is a hard thing to set an old man straight who falls as a youth, i.e. it is hard to raise up as an old man one who fell when young. Latin: To transplant an aged tree — Erasmus reports the adage in the same sense. So much does it matter to be accustomed from tender years. Horace: The jar will long keep the odour with which it was once steeped when new. Cicero: As you have sown, so shall you also reap. Petronius: A crease finishes off clothes that have been folded too long. Common saying: The nettle stings early if it means to sting. An old parrot ignores the rod. French: What the colt takes up in youth it continues in old age, and what it acquires in the breaking-in it keeps as long as it lives. Nurture surpasses nature — which Plutarch has learnedly demonstrated with reasons and examples in his treatise On how children should be brought up. Spanish: What one sucks in with the milk is poured out in the shroud, i.e. what one sucks with the milk answers to it in the winding sheet, i.e. it lasts until death. Spanish: To chastise an old woman and to delouse a fur cloak are two vain labours. French: To chastise an old woman and delouse a pelisse — these are two follies. Sirach 6:18: My child, learn instruction from your youth, and you will find wisdom that will last you until you have white hair. Sirach 7:23: Have you children? Instruct them, and bow their necks from their youth.

Iconclass

25G3(+361) trees (+ young plant)

25G3(+363) trees (+ (very) old plant)

31A2512(+931) arm stretched forward (+ indicating, pointing at)

33A35 conversation, dialogue; conversation piece

41A343 ladder

47I7(+57) arboriculture (+ bending, folding, shaping ~ industrial processes)

47I872(+54) beam, log of wood (+ connecting, gripping, lashing, joining ~ industrial processes)

54BB2(+4) Unnecessity, Superfluity (+ emblematical representation of concept)

49A0 symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ education; 'Ammaestramento', Dottrina', 'Educatione', 'Istitutione' (Ripa)

86(RAMI CORRECTI RECTIFICANTUR, TRABS MINIME) proverbs, sayings, etc. (RAMI CORRECTI RECTIFICANTUR, TRABS MINIME)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

41A343 ladderhigh

The correlate text 'ladder' matches the wooden ladder leaning against the pole on which the man stands.

47I411 orchardhigh

The correlate text 'orchard' matches the fenced orchard with young trees tied to supporting stakes and the old trunk.

47I15(PRUNING-KNIFE) agricultural implements: pruning-knifelow

The correlate 'agricultural implements: pruning-knife' may correspond to the knife hanging at the orchard worker's belt, though the object is ambiguous.

54D6 Custom, Habit; 'Consuetudine' (Ripa)medium

The correlate 'Custom, Habit' matches the emblem's explicit moral that habits formed young are unchangeable ('To change a habit is most difficult'), although no Ripa personification is depicted.

42A54 bad habitslow

The correlate 'bad habits' echoes the commentary's warnings ('Bad habit, bad ruin'; 'one may cast off old shoes but not old habits'), but nothing in the picture depicts bad habits directly.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

I iv 43 Annosam arborem transplantare – essay quotehigh

The Dutch commentary explicitly names it: "Annosam arborem transplantare. Eodem sensu adagium refertur ab Eras." — Cats cites Erasmus' adage as equivalent in sense to the Arabic proverb that old trees cannot be bent or moved.

II x 42 Lignum tortum haud unquam rectum – thematic inventiohigh

The motto "Rami correcti rectificantur, trabs minimè" and the picture of a man vainly binding withies round a gnarled trunk to straighten it are precisely Erasmus' 'a crooked branch is never straight'; Erasmus' essay even pairs it with the old tree that cannot be transplanted, and applies it to characters grown old in vice.

II iv 20 Quo semel est imbuta – essay quotehigh

The commentary quotes verbatim both the Horatian line that forms this adage — "Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa diu" — and the Virgilian tag Erasmus adduces in the same essay, "Adeo à teneris assuescere multum est."

I ii 61 Senis mutare linguam – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus' essay illustrates the adage with Ovid's image of the great shade-tree that was once a slender wand easily pulled up by hand but now stands immovable — exactly the emblem's contrast between the staked young saplings in the orchard and the unbendable old trunk, and its lesson that only tender years are teachable.

II vii 14 Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus explains this adage precisely by the image of branches forced with a fork away from their natural bent, which spring back as soon as the constraint is removed — the same visual argument as the man binding the crooked beam that 'blijft hy inden stant, gelijck hy eertijts pleegh'.

I ii 60 Senis doctor – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus' point that 'youth is teachable and adaptable to any condition, while old age is intractable' is the emblem's explicit moral, and the Spanish/French proverbs Cats adds about the folly of chastising an old woman make the same vain-labour point.

I vii 54 Cum lacte nutricis – thematic inventiolow

The commentary's Spanish proverb 'Lo que en la leche se mama / En la mortaja se derrama' expresses the same idea as Erasmus' adage that what is imbibed with the nurse's milk stays for life, supporting the emblem's plea for early formation.

II iv 19 Salivam imbibere – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus concludes this adage with 'modis omnibus curandum, ut optimis assuescamus' — that first-acquired tastes govern later judgment — which is the emblem's lesson that tender youth must be bent toward virtue from the very first.