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A38677 The art of making devises treating of hieroglyphicks, symboles, emblemes, ænigma's, sentences, parables, reverses of medalls, armes, blazons, cimiers, cyphres and rebus / first written in French by Henry Estienne ... ; translated into English by Tho. Blount ...; Art de faire des devises. English Estienne, Henry, sieur des Fossez.; Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679. 1646 (1646) Wing E3350B; ESTC R40266 59,361 106

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or similitude of a certaine and true quality which they have in themselves Besides that the object of the Devise is to treat onely of things unfeigned to clear and prove them And because the most noble conceptions of humane wit are of that nature we ought to exclude all fictions and never to make use of them in Devises Ruscelli Contile André Palazzi and Alexandro Farra admit of no humane figure unlesse it be fabulous monstrous or historicall because otherwise they beleeve that a Devise would resemble the Medall Some other Doctors do not think fit that the Devise be deprived of so noble and excellent a thing as the figure of a man in favour whereof they urge many seeming reasons which I omit the more willingly because I doe not intent to perswade others to that which I approve not my self Frastaglato Intronato permits in in case of necessity whereto we may answer that things done by necessity seldome or never succeed well besides it happens rarely that a Devise receives any constraint having a field of so great extent as all those things which Art and Nature doe afford T is true Aristotle proves that we may take comparisons from the humane body but he doth not affirme them to be equally good with those which are borrowed elsewhere The very Poets take no Comparisons from the same Species so long as fancy affords them others of a different So the Author that frameth a Devise ought to ground it upon the most noble and sure Basis of Comparison that can be taken from a different Species The Author which compiled a discourse at Rome upon the Devise of the Academicks called Renovati is yet more rigorous in not admitting of any part of humane body nor hands nor armes nor heart but surely that is too great a scruple For what grace can a hammer striking upon an Anvile have unlesse a hand be bestowed upon it And how can we represent the winds which serve for bodies of very excellent Devises if we be not permitted to adde a head to them it were indeed to incur a great inconvenience wherin a certain Pedant vaunting a skil in that Mystery as being professor of the 2 best languages in the world and reputed to have so prodigious a memory that it consumed all his judgement as the Epitaph doth witnesse which is already prepared for him before his death This universall Doctor then causing a Devise to be drawn by an excellent Limmer who understood as little the art of making them as theend wherto they tended discovered unto him his intent to have the body of a Devise drawn wherof the Motto was Quo FLANTE CORUSCANT the figure was burning coals upon a Chafing-dish And because it wanted the blowing of wind for the expression of which he was much troubled the Painter proposed the adding of a little face as it is usuall in such cases Apagè Apagè said this great devisor I will have no humane face the Artificer in a merry and joviall humour answered him smilingly Sir I know no way more fit to represent your intention unlesse you apply unto it the other part of the body that hath no face and yet makes wind At last he concluded to set a paire of bellowes unto it Is not that I pray a figure of a goodly apparence and proportionate to a gallant and magnanimous designe nor is it for that these figures have no relation one with another nor are derived from the same art of Kitchinry well knowne to the Vniversities I give you this example to let you see that that man is oft-times deluded that useth too much subtility And this passage is the more credible in regard I had it from the self same Artificer who telling me of it did then complaine that the Doctor had not to that day paid him for his labour according to his promise I had not mentioned this conceit if the subject we handle had not engaged me to it I could rehearse a prank no lesse unjust then the other ridiculous but that I have already insinuated it under the title of Ruscelli's opinions concerning the condition that ought to be observed in appropriating to ones self the Devise of another Author It is there where I have made mention of the Devise which my late Uncle Robert Estienne did invent in honour of the Duke of Rosny since Duke of Suilly grand Master of the Artillery by whom hee had the honour to be beloved it was then received with so generall applause that it was judged worthy to be eternized in Gold and brasse and to say truth it was stamped upon all the Ordnance that were cast at that time in the Arcenall embroydred upon the Officers Cassocks and upon the ornaments of the shops of Artillery It is not possible therefore that this new Devisor should be ignorant as well of the name of the first Master as of the comon use of this Devise however by dissembling it he did appropriate to himself the invention of it and was so bold as to give it as an originall wholly and without alteration to another Lord that had the same command among the great Officers of that Crowne and who in that Kingdome held the place of its rightfull poss●ssor Motto's are absolutely necessary in a Devise though some Authors have held the contrary for according to their opinion the Devise being a kind of Metaphor which is in a maner nothing else but a Comparison it needs but one subject changed into another But these Authors are deceived in this point since the figure of an Animal plant or such like subject is of it self indifferent to the signification of the particular qualities that the thing represented may have In so much that it ought to be determined by the Motto to some one of its qualities that is to say to that which the Author intends to attribute to the person of whom hee makes the Devise From thence it commeth that the greatest confusion or difficulty in understanding some Devises ariseth from the bodies being altogether naked an destitute of words which should distinguish their different proprieties whence the conception fancy and invention of another may be justly formed CHAP. XIIII The Principall Causes composing a Devise A Devise as a subject composed of a body and a soule ought to have his essentiall causes the materiall is no other but the figure of the bodies or the instruments of those things which are inserted in the Devise The formall cause which gives it life is is the resemblance or comparison which to expresse the Authors meaning occurres in the naturall or artificiall properties of the figure The finall cause is the signification or Comparison understood by meanes whereof we expresse more cleerly with more efficacy and livelinesse a rare and particular conception of wit But here we must observe that these termes of Singuler and rare are due to the definition of Devise for as much as a Devise ought not to be made use of