Harum pedes Gallinaceos fuisse tradunt, intellectu a superiore non dissimili. Scribunt enim eiusmodi fabularum interpretes, significari ex hoc hominem libidinibus deditum, fortunas suas perseveranti studio dispergere, inutiliterque prodigere, cuiusmodi esse Gallinarum morem, cum pleno acervo pascuntur, aspicimus.

They tell that their feet - of Sirens - were as those of a gallinaceous and of intellect not dissimilar from the aforesaid. For interpreters of such fables write that this expresses that human being is devoted to sexual pleasures, that with constant zeal he wastes his fortunes and that uselessly squanders them, so as we see the hens are acting when eating on a reach heap.

Sunt qui ratione habita quotidiani foetus, et geminorum aliquando pullorum, qui ovo ex unico excluduntur: ovorum etiam, quae nonnullae gemina singulis diebus {a}edunt, tertio etiam nonnunquam addito, verum eo abortivo, sola quippe cartilagine conspicuo, foecunditatem per Gallinam, et ovum significari velint. Haec omnia Pierius[1], qui hoc etiam ex propria sententia addit, inquiens: Atqui veluti per lauri surculum in ore Columbae, et per platani folium in Ciconiae nido securitatem significari prodidimus, cur non etiam per Gallinam, ad alam cuius ramusculus rutae applicitus sit, securitatem eodem modo pingi, hieroglyphicumque sapere fateamur? Siquidem {Afranius}[2] <Africanus> in iis, quae de re agraria Constantinus Caesar[3] colligi mandavit, ait Gallinas a fele tutas fore, si rutae sylvestris ramusculus sub eius [earum[4]] alam applicetur. Quin Democritus etiam tradit, eo praesidio munitas, neque a vulpibus, neque ab infesto quopiam alio animali contingi.

There are some who would like to hint at the fertility through the hen and the egg by computing from daily laying, and sometimes from twin chicks hatching from a single egg: also from the number of eggs that some hens lay twice in a day, sometimes with the addition of a third one, but abortive, that shows in fact only a cartilaginous covering. Giovan Pietro Bolzani says all these things, who also adds the following according to his own deduction, in saying: Well, as we reported that safety is represented by a twig of laurel in the mouth of the dove and by a leaf of plane-tree in the nest of the stork, why we don't confess that the security can be represented in the same way also through the hen, to whose wing a twig of rue is applied, and that we know its symbol? Since Sextus Iulius Africanus - not Afranius, among data that Constantinus I the Great ordered him to gather with regard to agriculture, is saying that hens will be safe from cat if a twig of wild rue is hung under one of their wings. In truth also Bolos of Mendes or Pseudo Democritus reports that provided with such a protection they are not touched neither by foxes nor by any other harmful animal.

SOMNIUM.

DREAM

Galli pugnaces in somniis seditionum, et contentionum {tantummudo} <tantummodo> significativi sunt. Verum non alia<s> in similem cum Coturnicibus eventum habent. Nos de iis suo loco[5] egimus ex Artemidoro, quem locum lector adire poterit.

Fighting roosters appearing in dreams are meaningful only of tumults and contentions. In truth they never have an effect which can be compared to that of quails. We have dealt with the latter in the proper chapter drawing data from Artemidorus of Daldi, and the reader can consult it.

EMBLEMATA.

EMBLEMS

Emblema est Andreae Alciati sub lemmate vigilantia et custodia, quod tale est.

Instantis quod signa canens {dat}<det>[6] Gallus Eoi,

Et revocet famulas ad nova pensa manus.

Turribus in sacris effingitur: aerea mentem

Ad superos pelvis quod revocet vigilem.

Est Leo: sed custos oculis quia dormit apertis,

Templorum idcirco ponitur ante fores.

There is an emblem of Andrea Alciato under the motto vigilance and custody which is as follows:

Since the rooster when singing gives the signal of pressing dawn,

and he recalls the maidservant hands to new deeds.

He is represented on the sacred towers: a bronze bowl since he recalls the vigilant mind to the gods of the heavens.

There is the lion: but since the keeper sleeps with open eyes,

because of this he is put in front of the thresholds of the temples.

Ex Oro Apolline, inquit Franciscus Sanctius Alciati commentator, ut mox ostendemus. Addit tamen Alciatus campanam, et Gallum ex communi usu. Obscurum est emblema, et male dispunctum in codicibus, quos mihi hactenus contigit videre. Dicam tamen quod sentio, liberum cuique interpretandi campum relinquens.

Francisco Sánchez, commentator of Alciato, says that it comes from Horapollo, as soon I will prove. However Alciato adds the bell and the rooster because of the same use. The emblem is obscure and badly  reproduced in the books which I have thus far happened to see. Nevertheless I would say what I think, leaving to anyone a free field for interpretation.

Titulus igitur huius epigrammatis est, vigilantia et custodia. Videamus ergo, quo pacto haec ex epigrammate eliciantur. Ac primum duplicem hic depingit Alciatus vigilantiam alteram corporis, mentis alteram. Corporis vigilantiam Gallus referat, qui homines ad labores solet excitare. Campana vero quia mentem ad Deum excitat, symbolum interioris vigilantiae contineat. Hactenus de vigilantia. Custodiam autem repraesentet Leo, qui apertis oculis solet dormire, tunc sic structuram ordino: Gallus effingitur in sacris turribus, quod det signa instantis Eoi, et quod revocet famulas manus ad nova pensa. Aerea pelvis scilicet effingitur in sacris turribus, quod revocet mentem vigilem ad superos. Sed Leo custos est, quia dormit oculis apertis. Hoc totum sumpsit Alciatus ex Oro Apolline Niliaco, qui libellum de hieroglyphicis notis Graece composuit, cuius verba subijciam. Vigilantem, vel custodem cum voluissent significare, Leonis caput pingebant. Solet enim, cum vigilat, oculos habere clausos Leo, cum vero do<r>mit, apertos, quod quidem custodiae signum est. Hinc symbolice Leones templorum claustris solent opponi, veluti custodes. Haec Orus.[7]

Then the title of this epigram is vigilance and custody. Let us see therefore how these things can be derived from the epigram. And first of all Alciato there represents a double vigilance, one of the body, one of the mind. The rooster should refer to the vigilance of the body, since he is accustomed to stir up humans to their works. But the bell, since it makes the mind raising to God, should hold the symbol of the inner vigilance. Thus far about vigilance. But the lion should represent the custody, being accustomed to sleep with open eyes, that’s why I arrange the whole series of elements as follows: the rooster is represented on sacred towers since he would give the signals of pressing dawn, and since he recalls the maidservant hands to new deeds. Naturally a bronze bowl is represented on sacred towers because it would recall the vigilant mind to the gods of heavens. But the lion is the keeper because he sleeps with open eyes. Alciato took all this from Horapollo of the Nile who composed a brochure in Greek - in Copt translated in Greek - about the known hieroglyphs, whose words I will quote. If they wanted to signify an overseer or a custodian they represented the head of a lion. In fact, when watching, the lion is accustomed to keep his eyes closed, but when sleeping he has them open, which indeed is a sign of custody. Then usually the lions are symbolically placed at gates of temples, as if they were custodians. These the words of Horapollo.

Gallus ita depictus, ut sub pedibus tubam teneat, cum lemmate, pacis, et armorum vigiles, significabit, quantum intersit inter belli, et pacis conditiones. Author est Claudius Paradinus. Gallum vero audacter invadere, et terrere Leonem, indicat, synderesim praevalere contra diabolum, qui dicitur leo, si non sit nimio peccatorum pondere praegravata.

A rooster so represented that is holding a trumpet under his feet with the motto overseers of peace and weapons will have the meaning of what there is in common between the deeds of war and peace. Claude Paradin is its author. The rooster boldly attacking and terrifying the lion points out the synderesis of prevailing against the devil who is called lion, if it is not weighted by an excessive weight of sins.

Tale Emblema depinxi in suburbano meo cum titulo: cedite fatis. Gallus, et Cycnus simul capientes cibum in vase alabastrino, in quod descendat e caelo manna, nix, et lac: cum verbis, sic animus significat hominem, [271] qui ostendat candorem animi sui, non posse a quavis externa iniuria turbari, nec offendi.

In my country house I represented the following emblem with the inscription: yield to the fate. A rooster and a swan eating together from an alabaster vase in which manna, snow and milk would descend from heaven: with the words so the mind to mean that a human being showing the candor of his spirit cannot be disturbed nor offended by any external injury.