Plate 42

"Armed with mathematical devices"

 

Moriae Encomium

Illustrated by Hans Holbein the Younger

 

 

 

Single Greeting Card (with matching Envelope)

Code: H ME42 SGC
Price: US$5.00

Reproduction on 8x12" sheet

Code: H ME42 8x12
Price: US$30.00

Reproduction on 12x18" sheet

Code: H ME42 12x18
Price: US$60.00

 

Holbein's illustration shown in Plate 42 from Moriae Encomium is associated with the following text drawn from

John Wilson's 1668 translation:

 

But then chiefly do they disdain the unhallowed crowd as often as with their triangles,

quadrangles, circles, and the like mathematical devices, more confounded than a labyrinth,

and letters disposed one against the other, as it were in battle array, they cast a mist before

the eyes of the ignorant.

 

 

The associated French text from L'Eloge de la Folie (1728) follows:

 

Mais jamais ils ne marquent plus de mépris pour le profane Vulgaire, que dans le

Mathématiques: ce son des Triangles, des Quarrez, des Cercels, & d'autres figures semblables;

ils les mêlent & les consondent en forme de labyrinthe: ce sont aussi des Lettres, rangées

comme un batillon séparté en plusieurs Compagnies.