Emblem 18

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

In auarosLatin

On misers

Interpretation: Ass eating thistles (On the avaricious)
Interpretation (German): Geiz

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within an ornamental foliate border, a woodcut shows an ass standing in a landscape under a cloudy sky. Its back is loaded with a pack-saddle bearing panniers, baskets, a covered vessel or flask and bundles of provisions. The animal lowers its head to the ground to crop a thistle and other rough weeds growing at its feet. At the upper right, from outside the picture, a hand (or driver's arm) holds a long rod or goad from which a looped strap or halter hangs over the beast's head.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page — Facsimile; click the page to enlarge

TranscriptionAI-generated

SEPTITIVS ritche, a miser moste of all, Whose liuinges large, and treasure did exceede: Yet to his goodes, he was so much in thrall, That still he vs'd on beetes, and rapes to feede: So of his stoare, the sweete he neuer knewe, And longe did robbe, his bellie of his due. This Caitiffe wretche, with pined corpes lo heare, Compared right vnto the foolishe asse, Whose backe is fraighte with cates, and daintie cheare, But to his share commes neither corne, nor grasse, Yet beares he that, which settes his teeth on edge: And pines him selfe, with thistle and with sedge.

TranslationAI-generated

Septitius, a rich man and the greatest of misers, whose large livings and treasure exceeded all: yet he was so much enslaved to his goods that he still fed on beets and turnips; so of his store he never knew the sweetness, and long robbed his belly of its due. This wretched caitiff, with his starved body, behold here, rightly compared to the foolish ass, whose back is freighted with delicacies and dainty fare, but to his own share comes neither corn nor grass; yet he carries that which sets his teeth on edge, and starves himself with thistle and with sedge.

CommentaryAI-generated

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

Nic. Reusnerus. Frigoris impatiens: patiens operúmque, famísque: Ecce rudes Asinus dat rudis ore sonos.

Nicolaus Reusnerus. Unable to bear the cold, yet enduring of labours and of hunger: behold, the rude ass gives forth rude sounds from his mouth.

Plautus in Aulul. Perditissimus ego sum omnium in terra, Nam quid mihi opus vita est, qui tantum auri Perdidi, quod custodiui sedulò? egomet me fraudaui Animúmq́, meum geniúmq́, meum, &c.

Plautus in the Aulularia. I am the most ruined of all men on earth, for what need have I of life, who have lost so much gold, which I guarded so carefully? I myself have cheated myself and my own soul and my own spirit, etc.

Propertius 3. 13. At nunc desertis cessant sacraria lucis, Aurum omnes victa iam pietate, colunt. Auro pulsa fides, auro venalia iura, Aurum lex sequitur, mox sine lege pudor.

Propertius 3.13. But now the shrines lie idle in deserted groves; all men, piety being now vanquished, worship gold. By gold faith is driven out, by gold laws are made venal; the law follows gold, and soon modesty follows without law.

Iconclass

25G4(THISTLE)(+32) plants and herbs: thistle (+ flowers, blossom, blossoming)

25F26(HARE)(+63) rodents: hare (+ dying animal; death of animal; dead animal)

25H114 low hill country

41A775 wooden container: barrel, cask

41A777 container of textile material: bag, sack, net

41C26131 plucked fowl

41C621(+5) bread, loaf (+ foodstuffs in other container, e.g.: barrel, can, cask, tin, etc.)

41C69:41C2511 meat; still life of meat❧spit ~ cooking

41C693 sausage

41C711(+5) wine ~ alcoholic drinks (+ foodstuffs in other container, e.g.: barrel, can, cask, tin, etc.)

46A1632(+0) money-chest, treasure-chest, money-box (+ variant)

46C13142(+739):31A244 ?❧head bent forward; bowing

46C13142(+745) ass, donkey (+ animals eating and drinking)

46C133 pack-animal

55CC11(+4) Greed, Covetousness, Cupidity; 'Cupidità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept)

86(IN AVAROS) proverbs, sayings, etc. (IN AVAROS)

98B(SEPTIMUS)3 male persons from classical history (SEPTIMUS) - representations to which the NAME of a person from classical history may be attached

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

46C13142 ass, donkeyhigh

The correlate 'ass, donkey' matches the central figure, a laden pack-ass standing in a landscape.

25G4(THISTLE) plants and herbs: thistlehigh

The correlate 'plants and herbs: thistle' matches the thistle and rough weeds the ass crops at its feet.

46C1461 prick, goadmedium

The correlate 'prick, goad' matches the long rod/goad held by the driver's hand at the upper right.

11N34 Covetousness; 'Avaritia' (Ripa) ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sinsmedium

The correlate 'Covetousness; Avaritia ~ personification of one of the Seven Deadly Sins' matches the emblem's theme, the beast bearing riches yet feeding on thistles, glossed by the commentary's attack on the worship of gold.

32A44 misermedium

The correlate 'miser' fits the moral subject evoked by Plautus' Aulularia lament over lost hoarded gold and the ass that carries wealth without enjoying it.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

II vi 14 Tantali poena – thematic inventiomedium

Erasmus explains this adage as applying to those who have good things within reach but may not enjoy them, and says expressly that it was commonly used of rich men who are mean and avaricious, quoting Horace's lines about the miser snoring on his money-bags ('mutato nomine de te fabula narratur'). This is exactly Whitney's Septitius, who 'of his stoare, the sweete he neuer knewe.'

IV viii 38 Asinus stramenta mavult quam aurum – thematic inventiomedium

The emblem's central image — an ass whose back is loaded with precious fare while it crops thistles and coarse weeds — is the same proverbial contrast between the ass and the riches it ignores or cannot use; Erasmus' essay likewise contrasts the ass's coarse fodder with gold it has no use for.

I x 71 Similes habent labra lactucas – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus states that this adage 'took its rise from a donkey eating thistles' (ab asino carduos pascente), discussing at length the ass's hard lips and the thistle; the woodcut shows precisely the ass cropping a thistle, and the subscriptio ends 'pines him selfe, with thistle and with sedge.'

I vi 22 Tantali talenta – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus here too applies the Tantalus figure to 'grasping rich men' who suffer amid heaped-up wealth, quoting Horace's 'mutato nomine de te fabula narratur' — the same moral of the miser starving in the midst of his own abundance that the emblem dramatizes.