Emblem 94

Emblem 94

A king is handing a pair of shears to a shepherd so he can shear his sheep instead of flaying it; in the background a gardener is carefully cutting a tree in the right shape

Boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubereLatin

It is the part of a good shepherd to shear the flock, not to flay it.AI-generated

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within an oval frame set into a rectangular border with hatched corner spandrels, an elderly bearded king wearing a crown, a fur-lined mantle and holding a long sceptre strides forward at the left; with his right hand he extends a curved, hooked staff (a crook-like implement) toward a man at the right. That man kneels on the ground, gripping a sheep between his legs and holding it by the head and back, apparently about to shear or skin it. Behind the king at the left a woman looks out from the shadow. In the middle ground is a village with gabled houses, a gateway in which a small figure stands, and trees; at the right a man in working clothes bends over a garden bed with a tool, beside a round tub with a plant. Birds fly in the sky. Below the oval is a blank cartouche; the plate is inscribed 'A. Venne inv.' at lower left and 'Matham sculp.' at lower right.

Subscriptio

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

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

TranscriptionAI-generated

De koninck spreeckt Wel, vrient, hoe gaeje dus te werck? Ghy zijt te raeu, naer ick het merck, Het schijnt niet datje scheeren wilt, Maer datje wel ter keure vilt: Ey staeckt u voor-stel raeuwe gast, Want dat en is u noyt belast, Neen, neen, een harder van het vee Die houdt het vil-mes in de schee, En is te vreden met de wol, Al is sijn mande niet te vol; En of hy schoon de kudde scheert', Noch maeckt hy dat het niet en deerr. Een hovenier of groensel man, Indien hy recht het ambacht kan, Snijt wel de bladers van het kruyt, Maer treckt voor al geen wortel uyt. Dus soo ghy past op mijn gebiet, Soo scheert het schaep, maer viltet niet.

TranslationAI-generated

The king speaks: Well, friend, how are you going about this? You are too rough, as far as I can see; it does not look as if you mean to shear, but rather that you are flaying at your pleasure. Oh, give up your intention, you rough fellow, for that was never commanded you. No, no, a herdsman of the cattle keeps the flaying-knife in its sheath, and is content with the wool, even if his basket is not too full; and although he shears the flock, yet he sees to it that it does no harm. A gardener or greengrocer, if he rightly knows his craft, may well cut the leaves of the herb, but above all pulls up no root. So, if you serve in my realm, then shear the sheep, but do not flay it.

CommentaryAI-generated

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

Ital. Rapiscona al mio popolo la pelle addosso & la sua carne d'in su l'ossa.

Italian: They tear from my people the skin off their backs and their flesh from off their bones.

Et cio che mangiano, è la carne del mio popolo & gli traggono la pelle d'addosso, & gli tritano l'ossa & le tagliano à pezzi, &c.

And what they eat is the flesh of my people, and they pull the skin off their backs, and they crush their bones and cut them in pieces, etc.

Lat. Odi holitorem qui à radice olera exscindit.

Latin: I hate the gardener who cuts off the vegetables at the root.

Franç. Apres raire ny à que tondre.

French: After shaving there is nothing left to shear.

Nederl. Men moet de schapen scheeren nae sy wolle hebben.

Dutch: One must shear the sheep according to the wool they have.

Ital. Chi troppo munge, ne cava'l sangue.

Italian: He who milks too much draws blood from it.

Lat. Qui vult amari languida regnet manu. Seneca.

Latin: He who wishes to be loved should rule with a gentle hand. Seneca.

Lipsius in prefat. polit.

Praestis hominibus sed hominum causa: nec Domini modo & arbitri rerum sed Tutores & Administri estis, mali mixto bique illi qui in Imperio non nisi imperium cogitant; Superbi Desides & qui se non civibus datos arbitrantur sed sibi Cives, nam sicut Sidera splendorem habent, sed ut usibus humanis deserviant, sic vos dignitatem, sed cum munere officioque conjunctam.

Lipsius in the preface to the Politics.

You are set above men, but for the sake of men: you are not merely lords and arbiters of affairs, but guardians and administrators; and those are bad, and doubly mixed with evil, who in their rule think of nothing but ruling; proud, idle men, who judge that they have not been given to the citizens, but the citizens to themselves. For as the stars have their splendour, yet so as to serve human uses, so you have your dignity, but joined with a charge and a duty.

Hinc Michea propheta taxat acriter populi proceres nomine Dei Opt. Max. in haec verba erumpens. cap. 3. 2. 3.

Hence the prophet Micah sharply rebukes the leaders of the people, bursting out in these words in the name of God Most Good and Great. Chapter 3, verses 2, 3.

Potestates semel constitutas ideo se sinere ut parcatur subditis. Cum enim natura omnis magistratus ad avaritiam sit pronior. &c.

That powers once established should for that reason be allowed to remain, so that the subjects may be spared. For since by nature every magistrate is rather inclined to greed. etc.

Iconclass

31A2512(+9341) arm stretched forward (+ reaching, handing, giving)

41A511 inner court of palace or 'hôtel'

41A6 garden

41A682(HEDGE-CLIPPERS) gardening-tools (HEDGE-CLIPPERS)

41A672 topiary work (shrubs and trees trimmed and trained into ornamental shape); bonsai, espalliered, etc.

41D212(+43) coat, cape (+ fur used for clothes)

44B191 crown (symbol of sovereignty)

44B192 sceptre, staff (symbol of sovereignty)

47D8(FLAYING KNIFE) tools, aids, implements ~ crafts and industries (FLAYING KNIFE)

47D8(SHEARS) tools, aids, implements ~ crafts and industries (SHEARS)

47I224 shearing (sheep)

54A2 Carefulness, Diligence; 'Diligenza' (Ripa)

86(BONI PASTORIS EST TONDERE PECUS NON DEGLUBERE) proverbs, sayings, etc. (BONI PASTORIS EST TONDERE PECUS NON DEGLUBERE)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

44B61 good governmenthigh

The commentary's central message—that rulers are guardians and administrators who should spare their subjects and rule with a gentle hand—is a direct exhortation to good government, embodied in the king handing over the shepherd's crook.

44B09 dictatorial government, tyranny; 'Tirannide' (Ripa)medium

The Micah quotations about rulers flaying the skin from the people's backs and devouring their flesh, and the condemnation of proud rulers who think only of ruling, evoke tyranny/dictatorial oppression as the vice being rebuked.

57A73 Indulgence, Clemency; 'Clemenza', 'Clemenza & Moderatione', 'Indulgenza' (Ripa)medium

The Senecan maxim 'he who wishes to be loved should rule with a gentle hand' corresponds to Clemency/Moderation as the virtue commended to the prince.

44B610 allegory, personification of good governmentlow

The crowned king with sceptre handing a shepherd's crook to the sheep-shearer functions as an emblematic allegory of rightful, moderate rule rather than a literal scene.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

III vii 12 Boni pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere – direct mottohigh

The emblem's Latin motto is verbatim this adage (Tiberius' saying in Suetonius, cited in the emblem's sources), and the subscriptio and image (king rebuking a man about to flay rather than shear a sheep) literally dramatize Erasmus' distinction between 'tondere' (leaving something to grow back) and 'deglubere' (leaving nothing).

IV vii 43 Muscae – thematic inventiomedium

The second emblem's fable — a wounded man begging that the blood-gorged flies not be chased away lest hungrier ones replace them — is the very material gathered in this adage: Cinesias' retort to Alexander that 'other thirsty flies will assail you all the more once they have tasted your blood', and the fable of the hedgehog offering to be the fox's fly-chaser; the political gloss on sated versus greedy magistrates matches Erasmus' use of 'flies' for parasites who batten on others.

III viii 95 Improbitas muscae – thematic inventiolow

The motto 'Magre vliegen bijten scherp' and the image of flies settling on a wound echo Erasmus' Homeric citation on the fly's shameless persistence in returning to bite a man's skin however often it is driven off, though no direct quotation is involved.