Re: Hermathena and Cicero

Conrad,

Well, it turns out that Pope Julius III was not the only one to 
mention Bocchi's "bronze engravings".

Looking again through Elizabeth See Watson's _Achille Bocchi and the 
Emblem Book as Symbolic Form_, I found this:

	"When did Bocchi conceive of illustrated poems as *symbola*?
	Friends outside Bologna received samples of the symbols well
	before their publication. In his 1554 _I Romanzi_, Giovanni
	Battista Pigna paid tribute to Bocchi's academy and
	especially to the Palazzo Bocchi: 'Quegli vna fabrica va
	edificando tanto ben compartita, che potrebbe essere da lui
	posta tra suoi Simboli per l'essempio d'una perfetta
	Academia' (That man is building a structure so well arranged
	that it could be placed by him among his symbols as the
	example of a perfect academy). Pigna appears to have been
	admiring a copy of the 1545 print of the Palazzo Bocchi,
	although he may have visited the academy in Bologna as well.
	Engraved copies of symbols, perhaps accompanied by a print of
	the palazzo, were alluded to even earlier by Lilio Gregorio
	Giraldi (1479-1552) in his _De Poetis svorvm temporvm
	Dialogvs_, which was written between 1548 and 1551. In the
	second dialogue, Bocchi's friend Bartolomeo Ricci speaks as
	interlocutor:
	
	"'Quae cum dixissem, sermon em secutus Riccius de poetis,
	Achilles, inquit, Bocchius eques Bononiensis in hoc genere
	laudis & caeterarum optimarum artium non mediocrem honorem
	sibi comparavit, qui in omni hac pene facultate praeclara
	documenta dedit superioribus annis, & nunc publice in patria
	honeste profitendo, & eius historias conscribendo, simulque
	magnificas aedes construens, sibi & Musis symbola conficit,
	ex variis cum philosophiae sententiis, tum historiis &
	fabulis, quae vario carminum genere exponit, & elegantissime
	graphide compingi facit subtilissime in aere adeo, ut his
	symbolis illa tria conficiat, quae bonus poeta & orator
	efficere debet, hoc est, ut prosit, ut delectet, & in
	utramque partem moveat.'

	"(And after I had said this, Ricci took up the discussion of
	poets and added, 'Achille Bocchi, nobleman of Bologna, has
	gained no little recognition in this genre of praise and of
	other of the fine arts. In his later years, he has given us
	outstanding works in nearly every faculty of knowledge. He
	has taught in public and with distinction in his homeland,
	has written a history, and is likewise building a magnificent
	edifice. And now he has composed a book of symbols for
	himself and for the Muses, drawing from varied sources not
	only the ideas of philosophy but also historical accounts and
	myths, which he sets forth in various poetic forms. He has
	had this book of symbols illustrated so elegantly and
	precisely with bronze engravings that by these symbols he has
	reached the three goals for which every good poet and orator
	ought to strive, namely, that his work may be useful, that it
	may give delight, and it may move the readers now to
	happiness, now to sadness.')"


Perhaps it was commonplace to refer to bronze rather than copper when 
writing in Latin during C16? The words for this are quite similar, 
even if the metals are not.

William Whittaker's online Latin dictionary at page

http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordes.exe?copper

gives the following Latin translations for the English COPPER:

---------------------------
aes, aeris  N (3rd) N     3 2  N   [XXXAO]
money, pay, fee, fare; copper/bronze/brass, base metal; (w/alienum) 
debt; gong;

assis, assis  N (3rd) M     3 3  M   [XLXAO]
penny, copper coin; a pound; one, whole; circular flap/valve; round slice;

as, assis  N (3rd) M     3 3  M   [XLXAO]
penny, copper coin; a pound; one, whole, unit; circular flap/valve; 
round slice;

aenus, aena, aenum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;

aeneus, aenea, aeneum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;

ahenus, ahena, ahenum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;
---------------------------

and returns at page

http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wordes.exe?bronze

similar, but slightly different, translations for BRONZE:

---------------------------
aes, aeris  N (3rd) N     3 2  N   [XXXAO]
money, pay, fee, fare; copper/bronze/brass, base metal; (w/alienum) 
debt; gong;

aheneus, ahenea, aheneum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper; bronze, made of bronze;

ahenus, ahena, ahenum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;

aeneus, aenea, aeneum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;

aenus, aena, aenum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
copper, of copper (alloy); bronze, made of bronze, bronze-colored; brazen;

aereus, aerea, aereum  ADJ    [XXXCO]
made of/bound with/armored with/of the color of copper/bronze/brass;
---------------------------


I should have known that this would not resolve so easily. ;-)

It never does!

I have another colleague in my circle who's very good at Latin -- as 
it was written/spoken in Europe from the medieval period through C18 
-- and shall ask his opinion next.

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
[email protected]

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