Geffrey Whitney, A choice of emblemes (Leiden, 1586) [work in progress...]

A CHOICE OF EMBLEMES AND OTHER DEVISES, For the moste parte gathered out of sundrie writers, Englished and Moralized. AND DIVERS NEWLEY DEVISED by Geffrey Whitney. A worke adorned with varietie of matter, both pleasant and profitable: wherein those that please, maye finde to fit their fancies: Bicause herein, by the office of the eie, and the eare, the minde maye reape dooble delighte throughe holsome preceptes, shadowed with pleasant deuises: both fit for the vertuous, to their incoraging: and for the wicked, for their admonishing and amendment. To the Reader. Peruse with heade, then frendlie iudge, and blaming rashe refraine: So maist thou reade vnto thy good, and shalt requite my paine.

Author: Geffrey Whitney
Artist: C. Muller
Imprint: Imprinted at LEYDEN In the house of Christopher Plantyn by Francis Raphelengius. M.D.LXXXVI.
Printer: Franciscus Raphelengius
Format: 4º; XX + 230 pp
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1667
Emblems: 248

Title page

On the individual emblem pages, metadata made by human indexers (mottoes and their translations, captions, interpretations, annotations, Iconclass indexing, bibliographical data) are combined with AI-generated metadata (descriptions of the images, transcriptions and translations of the verses and the commentaries, and suggested Iconclass codes and adages). The AI-generated parts are marked AI-generated and should be read as suggestions. The site is work in progress: not all emblems are complete yet.

Armorial bearing of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

An obelisk (pyramid) overgrown with ivy

Te stante, virebo

Mercury pointing at a three-forked road

Quà dij vocant, eundum

A crocodile and her eggs on the bank of the Nile

Father Time uncovers Truth, a young woman in a cave; personifications of Quarrel (woman with tousled hair and a torch, held upside down), Envy (snakes for hair, eating a heart) and Slander (woman gripping a boy by his hair)

Veritas temporis filia

A swallow bringing a cricket to its chicks, waiting in the nest built in a ruin

Dissidia inter aequales, pessima

A charioteer is pulled over the edge of a cliff by his bolting team of horses

A man is setting fire to a house, another man ascends a ladder with a bucket; two men fighting

Intestinae simultates

People worship an image of Isis carried by an ass

Non tibi, sed Religioni

A king commands a farmer instead of an astrologer to forecast the weather

Experientia docet

Ulysses, tied to the mast of his ship, passes the Sirens

The sun is melting the snow; a ship has run aground

Res humanae in summo declinant

The perforated barrel of the Danaids

Apollo and Diana killing the children of Niobe

Superbiae vltio

Democritus and Heraclitus

In vitam humanam

Actaeon devoured by the dogs of Diana; a man approaches with a falcon on his hand

Voluptas aerumnosa

Pygmies attack the sleeping Hercules

Quod potes, tenta

Two men are boozing, two men are playing tric-trac, two men are fighting

Ludus, luctus, luxus

A donkey, carrying all kinds of food, is eating thistles

Nemesis with a bridle walking on a shore

Nec verbo, nec facto, quenquam laedendum

A man is climbing a mountain upon which snow lies that does not melt in the sun

Minuit praesentia famam

A dead scarabeus on a rose

Turpibus exitium

Several people are watching a fox standing on an ice floe in a river

Nullus dolus contra Casum

A sheaf of corn

Mihi pondera, luxus

A snake coiled around a strawberry plant

Latet anguis in herba

Pliny the Elder at the edge of Vesuvius, Empedocles falling into Etna

Curis tabescimus omnes

Windmill with unmoving vanes; a sleeping man

Otium sortem exspectat

Fowlers lure duck into a net by using a decoy

Icarus falling into the sea

A ring-dove in early spring, has lined its nest with its own breast-feathers

Virtus, seated on the tomb of Ajax, is tearing out her own hair

In victoriam dolo partam

A man cuts out one of his enemy's eye with a stick but gouges out both of his own eyes with his fingers; in the background a man sets fire to a house

A man with a guilty conscience attacks his own shadow with his sword; Jupiter on his eagle

In poenam sectatur & umbra

A bird (swallow) flies to its young which sits in the nest on top of a statue of Medea, killing her children

Ei, qui semel sua prodegerit, aliena credi non oportere

Gourd-vines climbing a pine-tree

In momentaneam felicitatem

A beaver bites off its own testicles when pursued by two hunting dogs and a hunter

Aere quandoque salutem redimendam

A parrot in a cage greets its master; the son of Croesus suddenly speaks

Durum telum necessitas

Ajax and Hector exchange gifts: a sword and a belt

Inimicorum dona, infausta

A horseman breaking a horse with a strong bit

Non locus virum, sed vir locum ornat

A dog is deceived by the reflection in a river of the bone he has in his mouth

Mediocribus vtere partis

Hercules am Scheidewege, between Minerva (Virtue) and Venus (Vice)

Bivium virtutis & vitii

A thief is choked by the piece of meat he has stolen

A man in bed with a woman, a laid table next to the bed, a woman in a dress with eyes and wings at her feet (Fama) flees from the room

Venter, pluma, Venus, laudem fugiunt

A man kneeling at a compass, folded hands, looking at the Pole Star and other stars; a deer drinking from a stream

Mens immota manet

A dog watches a lion devour a young deer

Desiderium spe vacuum

Agamemnon in front of burning Troy and an army camp

Skulls roll in various directions when they fall from the apron of a woman; a horse

Varij hominum sensus

Diomedes, carrying a book, and Ulysses, in armour

Ocnus and another man make a rope; an ass is eating a rope that is finished

A wolf cub is suckled by a goat

In eum qui sibi ipsi damnum apparat

A man looking at a swallow

An older man seated at a laid table, a young man spading in the garden

Quaere adolescens, vtere senex

Spiders and bees eating from a rose-bush

Vitae, aut morti

Nil penna, sed vsus

A bull and an elephant are frightened by a red and a white rag, the lion by the crowing cock; in the background a stag is running away

Fortissima minimis interdum cedunt

A gilt-bream, a coot and a water-fowl attack a school of sardines

Iniuriis, infirmitas subiecta

A farmer offers a pig's head to a ruler while gesturing to a pig inscribed 'ulterius'

In dies meliora

A fig-tree with crows and ravens

Luxuriosorum opes

A herald is led away, captured by two soldiers

Agentes & consentientes pari poena puniendi

Birds on a tree symbolize the seasons: robin (winter), swallow (spring), cuckoo (summer), beccafico (autumn) (only three are depicted)

In quatuor anni tempora

Two birds fighting over the possession of a tree

Paruam culinam, duobus ganeonibus non sufficere

Two boys are blowing bubbles; other boys are trying, in vain, to catch them

Cuncta complecti velle, stultum

A dog attacks the stone that was thrown at it by the man who raises his hand to throw another

Alius peccat, alius plectitur

Two men try to wash off the colour of a black man's (an Ethiopian's) skin

Aethiopem lauare

A monkey is using the paw of a dog to take out chestnuts from a fire

Non dolo, sed vi

The tall pine-trees are crushed by a storm, while other trees survive; Jupiter on his eagle, raising his thunderbolt

Nimium rebus ne fide secundis

A scholar in his study holds his finger to his lips

An illustrated variant of emblem 60, 'in silentium'

A grape-vine growing around an elm-tree

Amicitia, etiam post mortem durans

Cupid rides a chariot drawn by two lions

Potentissimus affectus, amor

A chicken eating its own eggs, a cow with a basket of fodder

Quae ante pedes

A lame man on the shoulder of a blind man

Mutuum auxilium

Two hands from the clouds, one holding a sword, the other holding a trowel

In vtrumque paratus

A man holding a laurel tree, Jupiter on his eagle, a swan

Murus aeneus, sana conscientia

A winnow sifting the wheat from the chaff

A man with raised sword, lifts the curtain of a window

Brutus throws himself on his sword

Fortuna virtutem superans

Fishermen setting out their net

Fides non apparentium

Through a pipe the water from the sea is flowing into a small stream; a man is spading, an ox is lying next to a bundle of arrows

Virtus vnita, valet

A stork is bringing food to three young in a nest

Gratiam referendam

Tantalus is standing in a stream, unable to reach the apples above him or the water below

An eagle pecks at the liver of Prometheus who is chained to a mountain of the Caucasus

O vita, misero longa

Roman soldiers shaking hands

A man is too late in attacking a snake - it escapes through a gap in the wall

Remedium tempestiuum sit

A fisherman holds an eel with the help of fig-leaves

Serò sapiunt Phryges

A man is picking up branches from an old oak that is sprouting again

Dum viuo, prosum

A hunter takes aim at a crane while a snake bites his leg

Noli altum sapere

A richly dressed woman looking at two small furry animals (ermine, sable, musk-rat?)

Saepius in auro bibitur venenum

The wife of Anellus with the miller

Praepostera fides

A child, a simpleton and a jester in front of a king

Fatuis levia committito

The sorceress Circe amidst Ulysses' men which she has changed into animals

Homines voluptatibus transformantur

Jugdement of Paris: he chooses Venus over Minerva and Juno and gives her the golden apple that Mercury had given him

Iudicium Paridis

Hanno of Carthage teaches birds to sing 'Hanno is a god' and then releases them, but the birds, once free, forget what they had been taught

Ridicula ambitio

Conversation of two idle men

Desidiam abiiciendam

Saladin's shirt stuck on a lance

Mortui diuitiae

A pelican opens its breast to spray the chicks with its own blood

Quod in te est, prome

A sheaf of corn is surrounded by single ears of corn and small bundles

De paruis grandis aceruus erit

A pedlar and a bird of paradise (a bird without feet)

Vita irrequieta

A beached dolphin

In eum qui truculentia suorum perierit

The snail explains to Jupiter that he is late for dinner because he carries his house, to which no other place compares, on his back

Mercury teaches people to play the lute

Industria naturam corrigit

The ass complains he has no horns, the monkey complains he has no tail; the mole compares that to the blindness that is his own handicap

Infortunia nostra, alienis collata, leuiora

A woman standing on a tortoise, holding keys in her right hand, covering her mouth with her left hand

Uxoriae virtutes

An old woman with a snake escaping from her mouth

Inuidiae descriptio

An avaricious and an envious man are granted a wish by the gods on the condition that the first who makes a wish will get what he wants while the second will receive the same thing twice; the envious man is forced to go first and wishes to lose one eye ...

De Invido & Avaro, iocosum

A rock firmly stands, unaffected by storms

Petre, imitare petram

A squid escapes a fisherman

Dum potes, viue

In vain a fox is trying to reach a bunch of grapes

Stultitia sua seipsum saginari

A man trampling a sorrel (dock) plant

Virescit vulnere virtus

King Mezentius watches as two men tie a naked man to a corpse

Impar coniugium

A man is holding up a panel upon which a painter is drawing a human figure; a dog and a bull in pursuit of a fleeing man

Frontis nulla fides

In a cage the nightingale does not sing

Animi scrinium seruitus

The sword of Damocles, hanging from one hair taken from a horse's tail

In sortis suae contemptores

Two representations of Minerva: once she is seated at the foot of a bare olive-tree; once she is standing next to a fruit-bearing tree

Interdum requiescendum

Janus is holding a sceptre and a mirror and simultaneously looking into th epast and the future

Respice, & prospice

The hand of Gaius Mucius Scaevola appearing from the clouds, holding a sword over a fire

Pietas in patriam - Mutius Scaevola

When Marcus Furius Camillus laid siege to Falerii its treacherous schoolmaster offered his own pupils as hostages to the romans: Camillus refuses and has him chastised by his pupils: he is stripped and the children drive him back to their city with sticks

Habet & bellum suas leges

A raven sitting on a helmet

Insperatum auxilium - M. Valerius Coruinus

The sun scorches the eyes of Marcus Attilius Regulus whose eyelids have been cut off; the nail-studded barrel in which the Carthaginians will put him, lies next to him

Hosti etiam servanda fides - Regulus Attilius

Ironclad hand from the clouds, holding a lance with laurel wreaths

Fortiter & feliciter - Marcus Sergius

A lion holding a sword

Celsa potestatis species - Cn. Pompeius Magnus

The shield of Marcus Scaeva

Audaces fortuna iuvat - Marcus Scaeva

Frogs and snakes at the foot of a palm-tree

Inuidia integritatis assecla

A boar and a lion fighting; a vulture on a branch watches and waits

Ex damno alterius, alterius vtilitas

A church with a weathercock on top and a statue of a lion in front of it

Vigilantia, & custodia

A crab and a butterfly

The universe - the sun and moon, the stars, the winds, the elements: air, water, earth and fire - in its primeval state of Chaos

Sine iustitia, confusio

A man is shaking hands with a man wearing the skin of a fox (a false friend); a robber hides in the woods

Amicitia fucata vitanda

A naked man drinking from a cup, a dog faces a crocodile while drinking from the river Nile

Sobriè potandum

A shield with a swan is attached to a tree with a ribbon

Insignia poëtarum

Hares approach a dead lion

Cùm laruis non luctandum

A mouse is caught with his head in an oyster-shell

Captiuus, ob gulam

Buildings in cities and village are flooded by the sea

Scales (balance, measure), a mirror (self-knowledge), pennyroyal (controlling one's anger), coriander (moderation), terminus (consider the end), a sheep on a donkey (anger), bird to be caught in a trap (freedom of slavery)

Dicta septem sapientum

Buildings collapse around a table with books

Cupid and Death mistakenly shoot each other's arrows: Death stimulates an old man to love again, Cupid kills a young lover

De morte, & amore: Iocosum

A grape-vine growing around an olive-tree

Prudentes vino abstinent

A man pulling up a piece of cloth from a dye-kettle

A scholar is looking to his left at Venus whose leg is held by Amor; Minerva and Hera standing on his right

In studiosum captum amore

A tomb with a pitcher, a basin and a cloth

A sailing-ship in a storm on a rough sea

Constantia comes victoriae

A helmet is used as a hive by a swarm of bees

An arrow breaks when it hits a solid slab of stone

Calumniam contra calumniatorem virtus repellit

A hand from the clouds is pushing a gold coin over a touch-stone to test its purity

Sic spectanda fides

Hope, holding a bow and Nemesis holding a bridle

Illicitum non sperandum

A big dog, harnessed to a cart, is hit with a stick; a small dog lies in the lap of a lady

Feriunt summos fulmina montes

An arrow pierces the shield of Brasidas, causing a fatal wound

Perfidus familiaris

A fox with a long tail looking at a monkey in a tree; a man behind the tree

In copia minor error

A quill flying out of the trembling hand of emperor Valens

Having been thrown overboard by sailors, Arion is saved by a dolphin

Homo homini lupus

While the workman slept, the ape has crushed his foot, playing with the pieces of wood

Apollo and Bacchus, sons of Jupiter

Pursued by bees, Cupid flees to his mother Venus

Pursued by bees, Cupid runs to his mother Venus

Ferè simile ex Theocrito

Narcissus kneels at a stream, admiring his own reflection

An elephant is leaning against a tree that a man has begun to cut down

Nusquam tuta fides

A king squeezes water from a sponge; a crowd around a gibbet in the distance

Quod non capit Christus, rapit fiscus

A man with a big stone tied to his right hand stretches his left hand, to which wings are attached, upwards to God

Paupertatem summis ingeniis obesse ne provehantur

A hunted stag, having escaped to the woods, gives its position away to the hunter and the dogs by the noise he makes when eating from a tree

Pro bono, malum

A fox asks a boar why he is whetting his tusks since at present he has no enemies

In pace de bello

The foxes leave the best part of their prey to the lion, unlike the ass who is thereupon torn apart by the lion

Aliena pericula, cautiones nostrae

When led away to his execution, a thief punishes his mother for the leniency that has made him a thief, by biting off her nose when she embraces him one last time

Indulgentia parentum, filiorum pernicies

A doctor leaves the house of his purblind patient with his arms full of stolen goods; when she is cured, she is unable to pay the doctor's bill because he has 'robbed her blind'

Dolor è medicina

The more often the fox meets the lion, the less afraid he becomes

Dura vsu molliora

Gazing at the stars in the distant sky, the astronomer does not notice the pit in front of him and falls into it

In eos, qui, proximioribus spretis, remotiora sequuntur

After a flood Colasmus searches upstream for his wife, because in life she always acted contrary

Post fata: vxor morosa, etiam discors

Ants and a grass-hopper in a winter landscape

Dum aetatis ver agitur: consule brumae

A satyr and a man who blew upon his hands because they were cold and on his broth because it was hot

Bilingues cauendi

The lion offers to cure the sick fox, hiding in a cave, by licking her with his healing tongue; the fox declines, pointing out that the tongue has dangerous neighbours

Ars deluditur arte

In jest, a mother threatens her crying child she will throw him to the wolves; a wolf overhears this

In eos qui multa promittunt, & nihil praestant

Aeneas carrying his father Anchises from burning Troy

Pietas filiorum in parentes

A copper pot and an earthenware pot floating down a river

Aliquid mali propter vicinum malum

A man trying to pick a rose from a rose-bush, in spite of its thorns

Post amara dulcia

With a chain Satan is trying - in vain - to pull the book of truth to a hidden place

Veritas inuicta

A snake biting the finger of St. Paul

Si Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos?

A swaddled infant in a cradle, an old man walking with crutches

Cum tempore mutamur

Homer, with the nine Muses, is not being let into the house

Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras

Ingenium superat vires

The tame monkey of a miser throws his master's gold coins out of a window

Male parta male dilabuntur. In foenatores

A young kite vomits because it has eaten too much; another kite watches

Ferè simile praecedenti, ex Alciato

One man counting off his arguments on his fingers, one man reading

Vsus libri, non lectio prudentes facit

A table with an hourglass, a candle, a book and a shield

Studiis inuigilandum

A boy picking fruits from a tree, an elderly man, coltsfoot

Praecocia non diuturna

Two boys knocking nuts from a tree

In foecunditatem, sibiipsi damnosam

Labour is seated in a chariot drawn by ants; Idleness crouches next to the chariot, hungry

Otiosi semper egentes

Three women gambling with dice; the winner is about to be hit on the head by a falling tile (this detail not represented)

Semper praesto esse infortunia

A phoenix standing in a fire

Vnica semper auis

A tiger and a lion fighting; a road with travellers

Caelum, non animum

A man whose ship was wrecked is swimming with his valuables on his back

Auri sacra fames quid non?

A man is trying in vain to catch the bird he has inadvertently released

Verbum emissum non est reuocabile

Occasio as a bald, naked woman with a long forelock, holds a razor with one hand and her fluttering drapery with the other; she stands on a wheel at sea

Cupid sits on a seashore holding a bunch of flowers in one hand and a fish in the other

Potentia amoris

A lion, a horse, a hare, a fish, a bird (all have their own 'weapon'), a woman (beauty as her weapon) and Cupid

Pulchritudo vincit

A torch turned upside down is extinguished by its own wax

Qui me alit me extinguit

A man carving a text in a marble slab

Scribit in marmore laesus

A dog is lying in the manger, growling at the ox and thus preventing it from eating

Nec sibi, nec alteri

Quintilius Varus tries to prevent a young author from putting his work too quickly in the hands of Fame

Scripta non temerè edenda

Antique coin with Orpheus playing to the animals

Bacchus playing a flute and a drum

In statuam Bacchi

A monkey smothering its young

Caecus amor prolis

A remora wrapped around an arrow

A man nourishes a snake in his bosom and looks down at a city under siege that has allowed houses to be built outside its city-walls

In sinu alere serpentem

A goat kicks over a bowl of milk; a maid raises her arms in despair

In desciscentes

A monkey has climbed in a tree which makes his foolishness stand out all the more clearly

Stultorum quanto status sublimior, tanto manifestior turpitudo

A man is helping a fallen man to his feet

Bis dat qui citò dat

A snare to catch falcons

A man pointing at his ears which are huge, a second man pointing at his mouth, a third man fleeing from a snake

Audi, tace, fuge

A man breaks his sword on an anvil when he tests its quality

Importunitas evitanda

Thetis places amaranth on the tomb of Achilles

Strenuorum immortale nomen

Two drummers at an army camp; one drum is covered with wolf-skin, the other with sheep-skin

Vel post mortem formidolosi

A dying elephant falls on the snake (dragon) that killed it

Victoria cruenta

Fama flying over a landscape with obelisks, a pen hanging on her shoulder-belt

Pennae gloria perennis

Diogenes in his cask, is visited by Alexander the Great; Codrus seated at a small table, roots on the ground

Animus, non res

A couple, walking away from a money-chest, is followed by Father Time

Quae sequimur fugimus

Wasps swarm around a hive

Patria cuique chara

A courtier with his legs in the stocks

Aureae compedes

The hand of God is holding the reins attached to a ship that is placed on a globe; sun, moon and stars

A house with separate entrances for the rich and the poor

Avaritia huius saeculi

A cypress tree in a landscape

Pulchritudo sine fructu

A woman and a man who extends his hand towards a vine; zodiacal sign of Virgo

Tempore cuncta mitiora

A duck, a goose and a jackdaw feed in a field; a falcon flies overhead

Two men at a game of chequers or chess while flames are leaking through the wall behind them

Tunc tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardei

A physician tries to cure the ill miser Opimius whose heirs are already assessing his wealth by checking his treasure-chests

Ex morbo medicina

The fox prudently declines the invitation to enter the den to feel the pulse of the sick lion

Fraus meretur fraudem

Cephalus inadvertently kills Procris

A physician, standing in front of a throne, a snake, a dog and a cock

A dog barking at the moon

Phrixus crosses the Hellespont on the back of a golden ram

In divitem indoctum

Sisyphus pushing his boulder uphill

Interminabilis humanae vitae labor

Broth, boiling over the edge of the cauldron, falls into the fire

Qui se exaltat, humiliabitur

The sun shines on two men who, holding laurel branches, embrace beneath a palm-tree

Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram

A sheaf of hay hanging from a stick - the first Roman banner

Omnis caro foenum

Midas prefers the music of Pan to that of Apollo, and is punished by the god with a set of ass's ears

Perversa iudicia

Like a lover a shadow flees when it is pursued and follows us when we run away

Mulier umbra viri

A moth flies into the flame of a burning candle; in the background Evadne, Capaneus' wife, throws herself on her husband's funeral pyre

In amore tormentum

An ash is broken by a fierce northern wind but the reed bows and is spared

Vincit qui patitur

A lily growing between thorny bushes

Ivy - with snakes crawling through it - is growing on the wall of a building in front of which Virtue is sitting

Neglecta virescunt

Mice mocking cats that are caught in mousetraps

Impunitas ferociae parens

A man is carrying the world on his shoulder; the Tables of the Law behind him on the ground

Nemo potest duobus dominis servire

A group of Christians are threatened by men with swords, snarling dogs and fire; the hand of God holds a laurel wreath above their heads

A man is giving alms to a beggar while blowing a trumpet

Noli tuba canere eleemosynam

A man leaves the world behind and fixes his gaze on God, symbolized by a tetragram

Superest quod supra est

One man is hitting another man, who is wearing a mask, on the head with a stick

Amico ficto nulla fit iniuria

Two horsemen chasing a horse with whips raised

Sic aetas fugit

A man is cutting a tree with an axe: without the man, the axe would be capable of nothing

Soli Deo gloria

Adam is hiding from God who is asking "where are you"

Dominus vivit et videt

A skull and a bone lying on the ground in front of a bush

Ex maximo minimum

The sun sets over a landscape with dead and dying trees

Tempus omnia terminat