Saturday, January 14, 2012

Tutos Coniunctio Praestat

Here is today's emblem and distich by Joachim Camerarius, 4.4. The ancient natural history writers described the "aphya" as a very small fish, and the way these tiny fish kept themselves safe was to swim in a giant school so large that even the biggest fish would leave them alone. This Greek name is now applied to the fish we call the goby. Safety in numbers!

Tutos Coniunctio Praestat
Nos tamen haec glomerata simul coniunctio servat,
Quos facile sparsos perderet una dies.



Here is the vocabulary:

tutus - safe, protected
coniunctio - union, fellowship
praesto - present, keep
nos - we
tamen - but, however
hic - this, this one
glomero - collect, shape into a ball
simul - at the same time, at once
servo - keep safe, preserve
qui - who, which, that
facile - easily
spargo - scatter
perdo - destroy, ruin
unus - one
dies - day