Musaeum Celeberrimum (Romani Collegii)

Chap. II. ...marine swallow of this oval, hanging in the center within a sphere or nautical star, shows a wondrous experiment of sympathy; namely, it is a flying fish, which, when the side windows and cracks are closed, is a betrayer of the air breathing from the outside; as the Author beautifully describes in the book titled, The Magnetic Kingdom of Nature, that is, concerning the triple magnet in the inanimate, the vegetable, and the sensitive.

Ovatum 3. The third oval exhibits a hydrochoon water-bearer man, pouring streams of water from an urn onto the frothing earth beneath; and it is an emblem of the watery element to signify the multitude of the sciences, and is clear by these circumscribed utterances. The first is from the Kabbalah of the Hebrews, of this Hebrew. sense: There is no herb below that does not have a planet corresponding to it in the firmament, which strikes it and says to it, "Grow."

Written in Samaritan character. The other utterance is in the Samaritan idiom, brought forth by Seduna, and it is this: He who knows the mystery of the lower and upper world and the connection of things hidden in them, he will penetrate the deepest secrets of the mountains.

Ovatum 4. The fourth oval portrays a youth of beautiful handsomeness and modest grace, the symbol of the earth prodigal with an abundance of cornucopias of roses, lilies, and all kinds of flowers and fruits, expressing the Author’s genius in unraveling the hidden secrets of the earth, clear by these inscriptions.

The first is from Plato in the Cratylus: Nothing is sweeter than to know all things. The second is from the Greek. Bede on the Nature of Things: He can truly be said to have entered the workshop of the virtue of wisdom who assiduously contemplates God in the works of art and nature.

Part I. Latin.

Ovatum 5. The fifth and final oval represents a mass floating in the middle of the universe, distinguished by the celestial signs of the Zodiac, whose sides illustrate hieroglyphic utterances. The first Persian utterance says: Whoever has penetrated the root of the higher and lower order, no mysteries in the world will lie hidden from him.

Persian.

The second utterance is translated from Mar Isaac the Syrian: Learn wisdom, my son, for it excels the scepters of Kings and fills men with all the goods they could desire.

Syriac.

The third is taken from Muchi the Ethiopian Philosopher: Gehon is a river in heaven which corresponds to Gehon, that is, the Nile. There is a Nile on earth, the mystery of which if you grasp, every desire of your soul will be fulfilled.

Ethiopic.

The whole remaining space surrounding the other ovals with hieroglyphic notes, Arabic lines, a texture of flowers and clusters, and various figures in sequence and decoration, captures the eyes and minds of all easily into the contemplation of their variegated color, and which insinuate themselves sweetly into the minds of the spectators by a certain mysterious, majestic allusion.

---

C H A P T E R III.

Description of marble masks and clay vessels.

Chap. III. I descend to the ornaments of the walls and ingenious luxury; the beginning of which, and the arched semicircular part, is filled with one hundred and seventy marble faces or masks venerable for their antiquity, and clay vessels, intersected by their own cornices smoothed on a lathe, which also hang scattered here and there between the empty compartments of the walls. Furthermore, the estimation of the masks and their value comes from the fact that they represent to the life the effects of as many various gestures and human passions. Whence some, with an erect face of medium size and equally proportioned parts, show the excellence of their wit, sincerity, liberality, and greatness.