Here is Emblem CCXI, the Populas
alba, or the white popular tree, which I mentioned in my initial post on Alciati's
emblem book:
 |
| From our quarto edition |
Herculeos crines bicolor
quod populus ornet,
Temporis alternat noxque
diesque vices.
Because Hercules wears the
two-colored poplar in his hair,
Both night and day alternate
in time.
As I alluded to in my first post on Alciati, this image is an example of the tree emblems that were
substantially altered from their original form for the initial Plantin edition
of 1573. The original illustrations were much more literal adaptations of Alciati's text; they were often grotesque or even explicitly sexual. The Plantin
tree illustrations, on the other hand, are just images of trees without any
human elements being directly depicted. The text, as such, has been expurgated,
possibly to be made safe for a Catholic audience, possibly in order not to
offend the taste of Dutch burghers. In
the original, unexpurgated edition, the Populas alba
would actually have been emblem CCXII. The Plantin press removed Emblem LXXX, Adversus naturam peccantes, "those sinning against nature," from
the text entirely: likely because both poem and illustration feature a woman defecating on a bushel box.
