Geffrey Whitney, A choice of emblemes (Leiden, 1586)

Emblem 55

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

Subscriptio

CommentaryAI-generated

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

And. Alciat. Eheu intuta manent vndique debilitas.

Andrea Alciato: Alas, weakness remains unsafe on every side.

Notes and related emblems

• In Alciatus' Emblemata the motto of this emblem is: "Obnoxia infirmitas"
• Related emblem in another book: embmne_mig1591_emblem169

Iconclass

• 25F36(CORMORANT)(+5711) water-birds (CORMORANT) (+ animal looking upwards)
• 25F36(CORMORANT)(+451) water-birds (CORMORANT) (+ animal in search of food)
• 25F26(CORMORANT)(+53) rodents (CORMORANT) (+ postures, positions of animal(s))
• 25F37(GULL)(+5711) shore-birds and wading-birds: gull (+ animal looking upwards)
• 25F36(GULL)(+451) water-birds (GULL) (+ animal in search of food)
• 25F36(GULL)(+53) water-birds (GULL) (+ postures, positions of animal(s))
• 25F62(+452) bony fishes (+ animal with prey)
• 25F62(+5253) bony fishes (+ animal rotating, twisting)
• 25F62(+54) bony fishes (+ postures of the head ~ animal)
• 25F62(+63) bony fishes (+ dying animal; death of animal; dead animal)
• 25H11 mountains
• 25H13 coast
• 25H23 sea (seascape)
• 25H2311 wave
• 25I12 prospect of city, town panorama, silhouette of city
• 51G1(+4) Largeness, Magnitude (+ emblematical representation of concept)
• 51GG1(+4) Littleness, Smallness (+ emblematical representation of concept)
• 54AA7(+4) Weakness, Powerlessness, Helplessness; 'Infermità' (Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept)
• 54DD5(+4) Insafety (+ emblematical representation of concept)
• 86(INIURIIS, INFIRMITAS SUBIECTA) proverbs, sayings, etc. (INIURIIS, INFIRMITAS SUBIECTA)

Suggested Iconclass codesAI-generated

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

• 54AA7 Weakness, Powerlessness, Helplessness; 'Infermità' (Ripa)high

  The motto 'weakness remains unsafe on every side' directly personifies Weakness/Helplessness, matching the correlate 'Weakness, Powerlessness, Helplessness'.

• 92I7 monsters of the seamedium

  The large scaly, open-jawed sea creature swimming among the waves corresponds to the correlate 'monsters of the sea'.

Relationships to the Adagia of ErasmusAI-generated

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

• I v 4 Evitata Charybdi in Scyllam indici – thematic inventiomedium

  The emblem's point is that the little fry is destroyed whichever way it turns — devoured by the great fish if it stays deep, snatched by cormorant and seamew if it rises — which is precisely the proverbial predicament of escaping Charybdis only to fall into Scylla, and Scylla is herself a fish-devouring sea-monster of the kind pictured.

• III iv 94 A fronte praecipitium, a tergo lupi – thematic inventiomedium

  Erasmus' adage for being beset by destruction on every side matches the subscriptio's 'Betweene these two, the frie is still destroi'de ... on euerie side anoi'de' and the motto's claim that weakness is exposed to injury from all quarters.

• II x 48 Larus hians – thematic inventiolow

  The diving birds of the picture and the 'caruoraunte' of the subscriptio correspond to Erasmus' gaping cormorant (larus), the greedy bird that haunts the water watching for a fish to seize — the very behaviour that destroys the fry here.

• II ii 33 Larus – thematic inventiolow

  The emblem names the 'Seamewe' as a rapacious predator of the little fish, the same bird Erasmus treats proverbially as the type of greedy voracity (loci: rapacitas et avaritia).

• III viii 38 Cavendum a potentiore – thematic inventiolow

  The moral drawn — that the feeble are helpless prey of 'the mightie fishe' — is the commonplace Erasmus formulates as the warning not to contend with one far more powerful who can do great harm.

Sources

Record ID: embstma_1667_emblem055
This emblem on the Iconclass site: https://iconclass.org/view/embstma_1667_emblem055
Copy: University Library, Glasgow, Stirling Maxwell 1667