Otto van Veen

Inscribed on the album page, below the design and continuing on the preceding page, in brown ink, "Avarús qúaesitis frúi non audet (title) / Si qúis emat cytharas, emtas comportat in únúm/ Nec stúdio cytharae, nec Musae deditús úlli/ ____ [the inscriber omitted the next two lines of the quotation] qúid discrepat istis/ Qúi númmos aúrúmque recondit, nesciús úti/ Compositis, metúensqué velut contingere sacrúm?/ Si qúis ad ingentem frúmenti semper acervúm/ Porrectús vigilet, cúm longo fúste, neque illinc/ Aúdeat esúriens dominús contingere granúm/ Ac potiús foliis parcús vescatúr amaris, / Si positis intús Chii, veterisque Falerni/ Mille cadis, nihil est, ter centúm millibus, acre/ Potet acetúm, age si stramentis incúbet, unde - / Octoginta annos natús, cúi stragúla vestis,/ Blattarúm ac tinearúm epúlae, putrescat in arcâ" (If a man were to buy harps, and soon as bought were to pile them together, though feeling no interest in the harp or any Muse; How differs from these the man who hoards up silver and gold, though he knows not how to use his store, and fears to touch it as though hallowed? If beside a huge corn-heap a man were to lie outstretched, keeping ceaseless watch with a big cudgel, yet never dare, hungry though he be and the owner of it all, to touch one grain thereof, but rather feed like a miser on bitter herbs; if, with a thousand jars - that's nothing, say three hundred thousand - of Chian and old Falernian stored in his cellars, he were to drink sharp vinegar; nay if, when but a year short of eighty, he should lie on bed of straw, though rich coverlets, prey of moths and worms, lay mouldering in his chest.). The text is from Horace, "Satires", Book II, 3, lines 104-05, 108-19.