“The time of universal peace is near:
Prove this a prosperous day, the three-nook’d world
Shall bear the olive freely.”
Plate 13
The Zodiac from a Title page - Brucioli 1543
The Signs of the Zodiac, or, rather, the figures of the animals of which the zodiac is composed, were well known in Shakespeare’s time from various sources; and though they are Emblems, and have given name to at least one book of Emblems that was published in 1618,[[154]]—almost within the limits to which our inquiries are confined,—some may doubt whether they strictly belong to Emblem writers. Frequently, however, are they referred to in the dramas of which we are speaking; and, therefore, it is not out of place to exhibit a representation of them. This we do from the frontispiece or title page of an old Italian astronomical work by Antonio Brucioli (see [Plate XIII].), who was banished from Florence for his opposition to the Medici, and whose brothers, in 1532, were printers in Venice. It is not pretended that Shakespeare was acquainted with this title page, but it supplies an appropriate illustration of several astronomical phenomena to which he alludes.
The zodiac enters into the description of the advancing day in Titus Andronicus (act ii. sc. 1, l. 5, vol. vi. p. 450),—
“As when the golden sun salutes the morn,