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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N1v p194]

Epitaphium Lotichii Secundi.[1]

Epitaph of Lotichius Secundus.

Large rectangular plinth with lots of women and laurel branches on it round a swan. Naked men holding pots are arranged around the base of the plinth.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Quis situs hac urna? Vates, medicusque salubris
Lotichius, nomen cuius in orbe viget.
Nemo hunc Stigelio celebri, cultoque Sabino
Posthabuit, poterat quos superare brevi.[2]
Qui fluvii cessant, quid olor, tristesve puellae?
Quid circum lauri, quid medioque senex?
Gallia, Pierides, Germania, Tybridis undae,
Hunc Phoebo & defles nate, siletque melos.
Arcus quid pluvius superest? Hoc foedus amicum
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [N2r p195] Vesteque res hominum versicolore notat,
Sollicitos iuvenis bello, Musisque labores
Hîc peregrè, casus sustinuitque graves.
Post ubi sedatam patriam, mitesque sorores
Aonidum sensit,[3] dat Medicina locum.
Quid tellus, mare, caelum, aër, quid lucidus ignis
Continet, hunc meritò quod latuisse putes?
Occidit heu properè: at vitam monumenta coaevam
Authori reddunt, posteritasque memor.
Haec doctus lauro cineres tege, care viator:
Dicque vale, iunget nos rediviva cohors.

Whose is this urn? It holds Lotichius, the poet and salubrious doctor, whose name flourishes throughout the world. No one held him inferior to the famous Stigelius, and the learned Sabinus, both of whom he excelled with only a word. Which rivers stop their flowing, what’s with the swan and the sad girls? What are the laurels around, and the old man in the middle? Gaul, the Muses, Germany, Tiber’s waters, and you Phoebus’ son, mourn this man, and the song is silent. Why the rainbow overhead? This marks the pact of friendship and the fate of men with its variegated robe. As a young man he sustained the distressing chances of war, and with the Muses’s help withstood grave fates and labours with difficulty. Then, when his country was quiet, and he sensed the sisters of the Aonians [i.e., the Muses] were kind, Medicine gives place. What is there on earth, in heaven, sea, sky, or firmament, what do you think in shining fire rightfully eluded this man? Alas, he died too soon: but the monuments and thoughtful posterity grant him, their author, a life coaeval with their own. So, dear traveller, having learned this, crown his ashes with laurel and say “Farewell, friend, until the Resurrection”.

Notes:

1.  Petrus Lotichius Secundus (Peter II Lotz): neo-Latin poet, friend of Sambucus in his school days, who had died in 1560.

2.  Stigelius (Johann Stigel) and Sabinus (Georg Schuler) were poets and humanists working in northern Germany. Sabinus died in 1560, followed by Stigelius in 1562.

3.  Aonia was a part of Boeotia, the land sacred to the Muses.

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