Book Title: Andreae Alciati emblematvm libellvs.

Author: Alciati, Andrea, 1492-1550

Image Title: On Misers, or How Strangers Often Offer a Better Situation

Description: The pictura of this emblem by the Italian jurist and writer Andrea Alciato (1492 – 1550 CE) features in the background the ancient Greek kitharode and Dionysiac poet Arion riding a dolphin. The scene comes from the story of the poet’s capture by avaricious sailors intent on stealing the rich prizes he had won in a contest. They giving him no way to escape with his life, he asks them permission to sing a last song, the beauty of which attracts a number of dolphins to the ships. Arion casts himself overboard (foreground) and is rescued by the animals. In the subscriptio, Alciato draws the lesson that the minds of miserly men excel those of beasts in malice.

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