On the Cave of the Nymphs

added the fact that no clear example of masts dedicated by sailors exists. I confess that the observation is very plausible; but there are, nevertheless, things that pull me in the opposite direction. For when the ὑφασμασι textiles or Φαρεσι fabrics are mentioned, the reader understands of his own accord that ἱσους looms/masts were also present, to which these fabrics could be fastened: otherwise, needles and threads would also have had to be mentioned, which in a short description of that kind would rightly be considered superfluous and beside the point. Conversely, it might seem necessary that some votive offerings of sailors be found in this Cave: since these Nymphs presided over the waters, and sailors at that time, either for the safety of their ship in place of a vow, or as proofs of a grateful mind for escaped dangers of shipwreck and storms, had been accustomed to vow and dedicate various parts of their ships to the marine Gods, as we have related more copiously in the Dissertation. Let the Reader see which opinion pleases him more. I shall be just as happy to see my friend’s opinion preferred as if he had embraced mine: and I myself shall then not unwillingly subscribe to the judgment of the Reader. (*)

(*) Conveniently, an edition of Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, edited by Vinc. Riccardus at Rome in 1630 in quarto, came into my hands during this time, equipped with his most luminous Commentaries. Since the book is very rare and known to few, although it contains many good things, I do not fear to transcribe here, for the Reader’s sake, even the longer passages which are found concerning ἱσοις looms/masts on pages 82 and 83. St. Proclus, even though a lover of allegories, had called the mother of God, after various other names, "the terrifying LOOM of the economy, in which the tunic of union was ineffably woven; of which the weaver was the Holy Spirit; the spinner, the power that overshadowed from on high; the wool, the ancient, shaggy skin of Adam; the warp, the undefiled flesh from the Virgin; the shuttle, the immense grace of the One bearing [Christ]; etc." That is: "The weaving yoke of the most holy economy, in which in a certain ineffable way the tunic of that union was completed; of which indeed the weaver was the Holy Spirit; the spinner, the power overshadowing from on high; the wool, the ancient and shaggy skin of Adam; the warp, the undefiled flesh from the Virgin; the weaving shuttle, the immense grace of the One bearing [Him]; the artisan, etc." Oration 1, in praise of the Virgin Mother of God, p. 60, upon which passage Vinc. Riccardus comments in his Commentary, p. 82.
Page 60, verse 26, ἱσὸς loom/mast. Peltanus translates it as "Web"; and the Various Latin Interpreter as "Improperly." Although I do not deny that ἱσὸν signifies Web. Isaiah 59: "They weave the web of a spider." Here, however, it cannot signify web. For he adds "ἐν ᾧ in which." But the web is not the ἐν ᾧ, in which the garment is made; but the ἐξ ἧς out of which, from which it is made. Furthermore, St. Proclus here enumerates all the instruments of the weaver necessary for completing a web, and among them the ἱσὸν.