Wind - Aenigma Termini

Ænigma TerminiAuthor(s): Edgar WindSource: Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jul., 1937), pp. 66-69Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750072 .

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66 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Bebel may, therefore, have decided to add the figure on his own initiative and com- missioned I. F. to execute a copy.

To sum up briefly, then, these two cuts refer to a definite proverb which was well known in the sixteenth century. Most likely each was designed for the one particular occasion where we know it. (Hence the date on the cut in the Erasmus.) They were not devices, but emblems, emblems of the wisdom of the authors of the books, emblems, too, of their humanist outlook. No book, maybe, is more typical of Erasmus' balance and of his views on the burning theological questions of the day, of his ideal of

,o4poo-v<rv than the Exomologesis. Thomas More and Utopia are for us nearly synonymous, the wisest man and the wisest book of the sixteenth century. And what could be more meet and proper than that the two men should be linked together by a common emblem of wisdom, coming from the hand of an artist who was the friend of both ?

GEORGE CLUTTON.

AENIGMA TERMINI

n 15o9,

while travelling in Italy, Erasmus received from his pupil, Alexander Stewart,

the present of an ancient gem which an Italian antiquary identified as a figure of Terminus. Erasmus had it copied on his seal, adding the name " Terminus " and the legend " cedo nulli," i.e. "I yield to none' (P1. 7d). From that time the figure of Terminus, the bust of a youth with flying hair, appeared on Erasmus' medals and portraits. When he visited Froben in Bale, his host placed a large representation of Terminus over the chimney piece. Pirkheimer sent him a cup on which the emblem was engraved, and Bonifacius Amerbach, the executor of his will, had the figure carved on Erasmus' tombstone.

We know from Erasmus' correspondence that his enemies took the choice of this emblem as a sign of his " intolerable arrogance." In 1528 he was forced to write an " Epistola apologetica de termini sui inscrip- tione concedo nulli,"' in which he protested that the offensive words were not at all meant to be spoken by himself, but by Death, " the Terminus that yields to none." He explained how, by the chance gift of his pupil,

the pagan god had come to him. " Obvenit, non adscitus est." Being told by an " Italus quidam, rerum antiquarum curiosus," that the figure on the stone was Terminus, he interpreted it as an omen of his approaching death. " Itaque ex profano Deo feci mihi symbolum, adhortans ad vitae correctionem : Mors enim vere Terminus est, qui nulli cedere novit."

It must be remembered that these words, which did not satisfy his enemies,2 were written almost twenty years after the event. They may represent the true opinion of Erasmus in 1528, but it would be rash to infer, as is generally done, that this was also his opinion in 1509, when he began using the sign on his seal. He was then on his visit to Italy, where he moved among a well- known circle of humanists. From 1507 to I5o8 he stayed with Aldus Manutius in Venice, supervising the printing of his Adagia and conversing with the scholars of the Academy which used to assemble around Aldus. The chief sponsor of this circle-in fact, the Maecenas who financed the Aldine Press-was Alberto Pio, prince of Carpi, the nephew of Pico della Mirandola. On his uncle's advice the young prince had received his classical training from Aldus, and there ensued a lifelong friendship between pupil and teacher. Alberto Pio conferred his own name upon Aldus, who thereafter called himself Aldus Pius Manutius. Aldus dedicated his books to Alberto, and when he died it was found in his will that he desired to be buried at Carpi.

In this circle of humanists the figure of Terminus had been the subject of learned conversations. For it was discovered that "Terminus" was the answer to an old riddle quoted in Gellius' Attic Nights.3 Gyraldus expounded it at length in a book of Ainigmata written for the young Thomas Pico della Mirandola and dated " Carpi, 1507." Under the heading "AEnigma Termini," he gives the following exposition:

"Semel minus, bis an minus, non sat scio, An horum utrumque, quondam, ut audii dicier, Jovi ipsi Regi noluit concedere."

AEnigma est ex Senario Jambico, quod in x2. inenarratum reliquit Gellius, ut legentium coniecturas acueret. At nos ut laborem tibi hunc adimamus, aenigma sic absolvimus. Terminus Deus significatur, quem summa religione Romani colebant, eique Deo

1 Letter to Alfonsus Valdesius, dated 1.8.1528 (Leyden edition, Vol. X, p. I757 seq.).

2 Epistola No. 1102 (Leyden edition, Vol. III, p. 1283), dated 30.3.1530. "De Termino quum fuerit stolidissima cavillatio, tamen non accipiunt excusationem meam."

3 Book XII, Chapter VI.



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 67

nono Cal. Martias rem divinam faciebant, quam pluribus versibus in secondo Fastorum poeta Ovidius exequitur. Ita enim canit :

" Terminus, sive lapis, sive es defossus in agro Stipes, ab antiquis tu quoque nomen habes "

et reliqua quae subdidit. Qui Terminus Deus Jovi noluit concedere, dum Capitolium exauguraretur, quod idem poeta ita canit : " Quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia, nempe Deorum

Cuncta Jovi cessit turba, locumque dedit : Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede Restitit, et magno cum Jove templa tenet."

Idem Alicarnaseus Dionysius prodidit, cum iis tamen una Juventam deam fuisse tradit, alii et Martem. Dubitat ergo, quisquis fuit aenigmatis auctor (neque enim Varro est, ut vir quidam alioque doctus male ex Gellio putavit) semel minus, an bis minus fuerit, an utrumque eorum, id est terminus (ex utroque enim, hoc est, semel et bis, ter resultat). Non igitur semel minus, non bis minus, sed terminus fuit, qui Jovi deorum Regi noluit concedere. Angelus Politianus, cuius immaturo obitu multum semper amisimus, primus (quod sciam) scrupeas aenigmatis huius ambages explicavit.1

From this text two points can be clearly inferred : (I) that Terminus was a topic of vivid discussions, not only at the time when Erasmus adopted the symbol, but in the very circle which he then frequented ; (2) that nobody in this circle would have understood Erasmus' emblem in the sense which he gave to it twenty years later.

In quoting Ovid, Gellius, Dionysius of Hali- carnassus, and of modern authors, Politianus, the text gives the full story of Terminus, the god who refused to yield to Jove when he removed all the other gods from the Capitol. That explains the motto "cedo nulli." But there is no allusion in this text to Death as a connotation of Terminus, and this is the more remarkable as it would seem that the mention in it of the premature death of Politianus was bound to elicit the idea from so searching a humanist as Gyraldus. We may take this as a safe proof that when the words " cedo nulli" and the figure of Terminus were engraved on Erasmus' seal, his own friends of 1509 must have understood him to say

exactly what he was accused of saying by his enemies of 1528. It was an emblem of defiance. But in 1509, when the suspicion of the Church had not yet been aroused by the havoc of the Reformation, no fault would be found with a man who chose this pagan god for his symbol. To show that he remained a loyal Christian he only needed to do as Gyraldus had done and refer to the text of Ovid's Fasti. There, after having said that Terminus did not yield to Jove, Ovid adds that he must forever refuse to yield to men, as he would otherwise seem to place men higher than God :2

" Ne videare hominem praeposuisse Jovi."

This is a thoroughly Christian idea, and I submit that it may have been in Erasmus' mind when in 1509 he placed the words " cedo nulli " on the figure of Terminus.3

Between this early version and the late one, which Erasmus gives in his Apology, there is an intermediate phase, represented by the medal of Quentin Massys (P1. 7e), which bears the date 1519. Here the figure of Terminus with the motto " concedo nulli " is placed in the centre, and round the edge of the medal are added the words : " Mors ultima linea rerum " (Death is the ultimate

boundary of things) and " '%pa reXoi tMa~po^

W/ov" (Keep the end of a long life in view).4

I call this an intermediate version because it remains open to doubt whether by intro-

ducing Death as a connotation of Terminus, Erasmus already ceases to be the speaker of the words " concedo nulli." There is a definite

argument against it. The classical story of

1 Gyraldus evidently refers to Politianus' Miscellanea (Centuria Prima, Caput XXXVI), where the riddle and its solution are told. In the preface to this work, Politianus explicitly mentions Gellius as his chief Latin model. It is interesting in this connection that Erasmus says in the preface to his notes on the New Testament: " Let no one take up this work, as he takes up Gellius' Noctes Atticae or Poliziano's Mis- cellanies" (cf. J. Huizinga, Erasmus, 1924, p. 141). This shows how closely he connected the book that contains the original Terminus riddle, with the one which first proposed its solution.

Politianus, by the way, gives a reading of the two first lines which is slightly different from Gyraldus':

"Semel minus'ne, an bis minus sit, non sat scio, An utrumque harum, ut quondam audivi dicier."

2 To say "Jove " for " God " was so common in the Renaissance that even Sanctes Pagnini's hatred of classical allusions did not prevent the word "Jove " from being included in his epitaph.

3 As it was Politianus who first solved the Terminus riddle, the legend must have been known to the artists of the Medici circle. It is possible therefore that the story of Terminus also explains Michael Angelo's drawing (Frey 298), supposedly made for Cavallieri, on which a group of men, driven on by a fire under their feet which is kindled by cupids, shoot arrows at a Terminal figure protected by a shield. Amor lies sleeping in front of that figure. The meaning would be this : The beloved being, whose own love is asleep, is immune to the darts of his lover's passions. Like Terminus, he yields to none.

4 In his apology of 1528, Erasmus always refers to this version as if it were the original one, which it clearly is not. Even the double verse " Conc6do nuilli T6rminiis " (" iambicus dimeter acatalectus ") and " Tdrminis concedo nilli " (" dimeter trochaicus acatalectus"), which plays so large a part in the argument, cannot be read into the first version which has " cedo " instead of " concedo."



68 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

Terminus would lose its point if Death were the only speaker. There would remain just the verbal significance of " concedo nulli" and the abstract notion of the boundary god. On the other hand, these two allusions to death would enrich the classical story and enhance its meaning if the original plot were left intact and Terminus continued to be the model of one who refuses to yield to external forces. In this case the peripheral inscriptions would merge with the one in the centre and produce the following moral:

He who looks upon Death as the boundary of Life and keeps the ultimate end of Life in view may well take Terminus as his emblem, for he refuses to place his temporal welfare higher than his eternal one.

The air of youthful defiance in the figure of Terminus seems to fit this idea of refusal, but would be difficult to reconcile with the simple notion of death. Was Death ever seen represented as a youth with flying hair ?1

Not unless Death meant Eternity. Eras- mus, by introducing Death in this context, must actually have had Eternity in mind. This can be inferred from his own description of Terminus : " Vident illic sculptam im- aginem, inferne saxum, superne juvenem capillis volitantibus." He divides the figure into two separate sections. The block of stone with the inscription is one thing. The head of the youth with flying hair is another. Terminus was meant to be a stone, the boundary stone at the end of the field or, in Erasmus' interpretation, at the end of life. That explains the lower half of the figure. The upper half can be explained from Livy (whom Erasmus quotes extensively in his apology) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus2 (who is mentioned by Gyraldus). Both these authors report that when Terminus refused to yield to Jove he was joined by the god or goddess of youth, luventus or luventas. Long flying hair .was an attribute of youth-not of the youth which yields to age, but of the youth which will not yield, i.e. eternal youth:

Solis aeterna est Phoebo Bacchoque iuventus, Nam decet intonsus crinis utrumque deum.3

The figure of Terminus-Iuventus-youth placed on the rock of death-may thus be taken to signify ?Eternitas. And this actually corresponds-and Erasmus knew it well4- to the original meaning placed by the Romans upon the Terminus-legend. They rejoiced at it, because they took it as an omen of the eternity of the Empire.5

To the Christian mind eternity begins when time is ended. Death is the gateway to eternity. Hence Erasmus could justly claim in retrospect that Terminus stood for Death. This Death, however, as seen in the Terminus image of the medal, was not a gruesome spectre, a threat of destruction to the living, but on the contrary, the vital force which gives them strength and direc- tion-a daemon in the Socratic sense of the word. Therefore-and here the circle closes again-the words " concedo nulli " as spoken by Death would also be spoken by him who lives in the hope of eternity. Death in the sense of a new life was not only his goal, but also his model.

By 1528, when Erasmus was writing his apology, such an interpretation of the motto " concedo nulli " would have come dangerously near to Luther's Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders. Erasmus himself was far from accept- ing it. What later critics have said in his disparagement, he himself said in his own praise : he was " yielding to all rather than to none " (" citius omnibus cedens quam nulli "). He considered it a Socratic virtue, and in practising it he shrewdly joined malice to irony. Every party accused him of com- promising with the other. In ceding to all he really ceded to none. When he was charged with arrogance in the choice of his emblem he complained that his opponents not only accused him of that vice, but imputed to him the stupidity of confessing to it publicly in a symbol. This jest ought perhaps also to be a warning against taking his words of apology at their face value. When he said that he had meant the words " concedo nulli" to be spoken by Death he may have told only part of the story. If our interpretation of the Massys medal be correct, both figures-

1 Some such questions must have been asked by the correspondent against whom Erasmus inveighs in his letter to Valdesius: " Poteras, inquient, insculpere defuncti cranium."

2 Dionys. Halic., Antiquit. Roman., Lib. III, Cap. 69. The passages in Livy are in Book I and Book VI.

3 Tibullus, Elegia, I, 4, v. 37-38; quoted by Marsilio Ficino in De vita longa and by Gyraldus in his book on the gods, s.v. Bacchus.

4 Cf. the explicit reference in his Epistola Apologetica, loc. cit.

5 This notion of Aeternitas must have influenced the learned M. P. Dinet, when in his Cinq Livres des Hilroglyphiques (Paris, 1614) he told the story of Terminus in a somewhat corrupt form, which sub- stitutes Chronos for Jove : " Les Romains rendoient les honneurs diuins A une grosse pierre que estoit au Capitole, qu'ils appelloient Terminus : qu'ils disoient estre celle que Saturne n'avait peu deuorer."



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 69

Death and he who takes Terminus for his emblem-are correlated speakers and express fundamentally the same idea. But in times of distress, when minds grow incensed with bigotry and proffer accusations of arrogance and conceit, it might be wiser to let Death speak alone and for man to be silent.

By observing this silence, Erasmus gave up part of his emblem and, with it, part of his old allegiances. He had felt in sympathy with the religious reformers, but was shocked by the violence of Luther's apostasy. He had rejoiced in the revival of classical studies, but felt now forsaken by the Italian humanists. Many of these had abandoned the cause of " bone litere ". They accused him of having laid the eggs which had been hatched by Luther. The most prominent members of the old circle of Aldus had become his avowed enemies. Alberto Pio himself pre- pared an open attack.

Under the impact of this changed situation Erasmus seems to have taken pains to erase from the explanation of his emblem any trace of his indebtedness to his former friends and present enemies. It is curious to observe-and it cannot be an accident- that in telling the story of Terminus in his " Apology" he omits without exception every one of the sources which Gyraldus had cited and which he used to cite himself: Ovid, Gellius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He seems intent upon stressing his " inde- pendence ". Of classical authors he quotes only the one whom Gyraldus had omitted-- Livy. He adds two Christian authors, St. Augustine and St. Ambrose. Of his con- temporaries he mentions neither Politianus nor, of course, Gyraldus himself. And the chief inspirer of his emblem, the man who had first seen the stone and identified it as Terminus, has become an anonymous figure : " Italus quidam, antiquarum rerum curiosus."

E. W.

A CLASSICAL QUOTATION IN MICHAEL ANGELO'S "SACRIFICE

OF NOAH)"

The group of men and women in Michael Angelo's " Sacrifice of Noah " who are

engaged in front of the altar in slaughtering the animals and preparing the fire, have long been recognized as a classical "

motif"; but it has passed unnoticed that one of the

chief figures behind the altar-the woman kindling the flame (Pl. 8a)-is a literal quotation from Meleagros sarcophagi (P1. 8b). In the story of Meleagros, she represents the mother of the hero, Althaia, who burns the enchanted faggot, magically connected with the life of her son, thus avenging his murder of her brother. It may be that Michael Angelo saw in her strange gesture-head turned away, the hand before the eyes-some ritual gesture of sacrifice which he copied. A passage in Leonardo's manuscripts, however, explains the meaning of the pose more simply. Speaking of how to represent a night scene, he writes : " As to their gestures, make those who are near it (the flame) screen themselves with their hands and cloaks as a defence against the intense heat, and with their faces turned away as if about to retreat (fugire). Of those further off, represent several as raising their hands to screen their eyes, hurt by the intolerable glare."' Of course, Leonardo, who codifies and enriches the formula of the Quattrocento, is not to be considered as a direct source for Michael Angelo, but he provides a parallel worth mentioning.

E. GOMBRICH

1 J. P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 1883, No. 604.

PLATONIC JUSTICE, DESIGNED BY RAPHAEL

In the fresco of the 'Stanza della Segna- tura' which is meant to exemplify

Justice-in accordance with that universal plan in which Philosophy is exemplified by the 'School of Athens', Poetry by the ' Parnassus' and Theology by the 'Dis- puta '-Raphael painted the three virtues of Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance (P1. 8d), which in the classical canon of the cardinal virtues ought to have Justice for their companion; but Justice herself does not appear. Some explain this paradox by saying that Justice appeared already on the ceiling and could not therefore be repeated on the wall. Others declare that Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance are virtues " necessary for the just ". But none of these arguments, though satisfactory to those who suggest them, can possibly be ascribed to the author of Raphael's programme. The mind (or minds) which invented the' School of Athens'



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