Emblem 29

Emblem 29

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

Amor in filiosLatin

Love for offespring

Interpretation: Bird brooding (Love to offspring)
Interpretation (German): Mutterliebe

Description of the imageAI-generated

Within an ornate interlace woodcut border, a winter landscape of leafless trees. In the fork of a large central tree a ringdove sits on a nest, its head raised and its breast surrounded by a spray of loose downy feathers. Smaller bare trees stand to left and right; low ground and a few stumps are visible at the base.

Subscriptio

Facsimile page — Facsimile; click the page to enlarge

TranscriptionAI-generated

WHEN Boreas coulde, dothe bare both busshe, and tree, Before the Springe, the Ringdoue makes her neste: And that her yonge both softe, and warme, mighte bee, Shee pulles her plumes, bothe from her backe, and breste: And while shee stryues, her broode for to preserue, Ofte times for coulde, the tender damme doth sterue. MEDEA nowe, and PROGNE, blusshe for shame: By whome, are ment yow dames of cruell kinde, Whose infantes yonge, vnto your endlesse blame, For mothers deare, do tyrauntes of yow finde: Oh serpentes seede, each birde, and sauage brute, Will those condempne, that tender not theire frute.

TranslationAI-generated

When cold Boreas (the north wind) strips bare both bush and tree, before the Spring the ringdove makes her nest; and so that her young may be both soft and warm, she plucks her feathers from both her back and breast. And while she strives to preserve her brood, often the tender mother dies of cold. Let Medea and Procne now blush for shame: by whom are meant you women of cruel kind, whose young infants, to your endless blame, find tyrants of you instead of dear mothers. O seed of serpents, every bird and savage beast will condemn those who do not cherish their offspring.

Iconclass

23F41 winter landscape; landscape symbolizing winter (the four seasons of the year)

25F39(RING-DOVE)(+412) other birds (RING-DOVE) (+ brooding, hatching)

25F39(RING-DOVE)(+421):25F39(RING-DOVE)(+352) other birds (RING-DOVE) (+ nest, den, burrow)❧other birds (RING-DOVE) (+ feathers)

25G3(+351) trees (+ bare plant)

25H11 mountains

42B120

42B290

86(AMOR IN FILIOS) proverbs, sayings, etc. (AMOR IN FILIOS)

94A74 Medea kills her two children; she flees from Corinth in a chariot drawn by winged dragons

95B(PHILOMELA & PROCNE)66 Procne kills Itys, her son by Tereus, in order to serve him up as food to her husband

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

III viii 20 Adamantis tenere – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus' adage illustrates tender love through the Homeric image of a mother carefully shielding her sleeping child from a fly; Whitney's emblem likewise uses an animal-maternal image (the ringdove plucking her own breast) as the exemplary figure of self-sacrificing parental love, though there is no verbal borrowing.

II viii 28 Liberorum amantior quam Gello – thematic inventiolow

Both texts turn on the paradox of mothers and children: Gello is a ghost both 'fond of children' and their destroyer, while Whitney contrasts the self-sacrificing ringdove with Medea and Procne, mothers who became 'tyrants' to their own infants. The connection is topical (amor in liberos / cruel mothers) rather than textual.

V i 61 Mansum ex ore dare – thematic inventiolow

Erasmus glosses this as the proverbial expression of deepest love, drawn from mothers and nurses who give their nurslings food from their own mouths — the same conceit of a parent giving from her own body that Whitney embodies in the dove plucking her own plumage for the nest.

Description of the imageAI-generated

Subscriptio

TranscriptionAI-generated

TranslationAI-generated

Notes and related emblems

Iconclass

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

Sources