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Reading Latin Epitaphs
A Handbook for Beginners with Illustrations
By John Parker University of Exeter Press
Copyright © 2012 John H.D. Parker
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-905816-05-7
CH1 1. Westminster Abbey
SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.
Obiit XIII. die Decembris,
Anno Domini
M.DCC.LXXXIV
Ætatis suæ LXXV
Samuel Johnson, LL.D., died on the 13th day of December in the year of our Lord 1784, aged 75.
Notes.
LL.D. An abbreviation of Legum Doctor, "Doctor of Laws". Legum is the genitive plural of lex, "a law", and Doctor is our own word "Doctor". The double L indicates a plural noun, just as we use, say, "pp." as an abbreviation for "pages".
Obiit Literally "he went to", with "death" understood. Another expression using obiit is obiit diem supremum, "he arrived at his last day". [Vide24.] Obiit, or obijt [vide2], however is normally used on its own to mean "he (or she) died".
Die This is the ablative singular of dies, "a day", the ablative here implying the preposition "on". Since xiii is "thirteen", we are being told that he died "on the thirteenth day". [Cf. the legal term sine die, "without a day (being fixed)".]
DecembrisDecember is a Latin nominative: Decembris is the corresponding genitive, "of December".
Anno This is the ablative singular of annus, "a year", with "in" implied here by the ablative, so "in the year".
Domini The genitive singular of Dominus, "Lord", so Domini is "of (our) Lord", with "our" being understood.
Ætatis The genitive singular of ætas, "age". The genitive here follows the earlier anno and shares this word with Domini, so the full phrase is anno ... ætatis suæ, "in the year of (his) age".
Suæ This supplies the missing "his". It is the feminine genitive singular of suus and agrees with ætatis, which is also feminine and genitive.
M.DCC.LXXXIV Is 1000 + 500 + 100 + 100 + 50 + 10 + 10 + 10 - 1 + 5 = 1784. Note that the smaller (in value) i in front of the larger (in value) v indicates a subtraction.
2. Offwell
HIC PROPE REQUIESCIT IOANNA,
UXOR THOMÆ SOUTHCOTT DE
KILMINGTON GEN: FILIA NATU
MAXIMA, GULIELMI ET ANNÆ
COLLYNS DE COLLWELL, ARMIG:
OBIJT 14 DIE DECEMBRIS ANNO
DOMINI 1696
Near this spot lies Joanna, wife of Thomas Southcott of Kilmington, Gentleman, eldest daughter of William and Anne Collyns of Collwell, Esquire. She died on 14th December A.D. 1696.
Notes
Hic prope Literally "here close by", but we often find "near this spot" in English inscriptions of the same period.
Requiescit This is the third person singular present indicative of requiesco, "I rest", so either "rests" or "lies" is a reasonable translation.
Thomæ Thomas is a Hebrew name, but Latin adopted it and treated it as if it were a first declension noun, with genitive Thomæ, "of Thomas".
Gen. An abbreviation of Generosi, the genitive singular of Generosus, "a gentleman", in apposition to Thomæ. "Gentleman" was a recognised social rank until the nineteenth century, granted usually to wealthy men who had acquired their wealth through commerce or the professions. Originally it ranked a little below Armiger, "Esquire", a title born by the lower ranks of the aristocracy, but the borders soon became blurred, especially as Gentlemen, like Esquires, were often entitled to bear coats of arms.
Filia ... maxima "Eldest daughter". Maximus in fact means "greatest", the superlative of magnus, but its connection with age is indicated by the interposed natu.
Natu "by birth", the ablative singular of natus, a fourth declension noun, which in fact is found only in the ablative case.
Gulielmi This is the genitive of Gulielmus, "William". [Cf. "Guglielmo" in Italian.]
Annæ The genitive of Anna, "Anne".
Armig An abbreviation of Armigeri, the genitive singular of Armiger, "Esquire", in apposition to Gulielmi. Armiger was an armour-bearer in the Roman army; "esquire" came to English through French from the Latin scutarius, "a shield-bearer". Note that although armiger i here is placed after the names and residence of both William and Anne, it refers only to William.
Obijt This is the same word as obiit, and is pronounced in the same way, as "obi-it". It was common practice to write the second "i" of a pair as "j". The same treatment was given to the final "i" of Roman numerals, especially in legal documents and official sets of accounts, so that, for example, viii (8) was often written as viij. [Cf. also filij in 11.]
14 If this were written in words it would appear as quarto decimo, the ablative of quartus decimus, "fourteenth", to agree with die, the ablative of dies, "day". We might therefore have found it written as 14°. [Cf. 2° in 3.]
3. St. Thomas, Exeter
HIC JACET CORPUS ANNÆ VXORIS
THOMÆ NORTHMORE GEÑ QUÆ OBIJT
SEXTO DIE APRILIS AÑO DOM 1686
HIC JACET CORPUS ELIZABETHÆ FILIÆ
THOMÆ NORTHMORE GEÑ ET ANNÆ
VXORIS EJUS QUÆ OBIJT 2° DIE AUGU:
1683 ANNO ÆTATIS SUÆ SECUNDO
Here lies the body of Anne, wife of Thomas Northmore, Gentleman, who died on 6th April A.D. 1686.
Here lies the body of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Northmore, Gentleman, and Anne his wife, who died on 2nd August 1683 at the age of two.
Notes
Hic jacet "Here lies". Jacet or iacet is the third person singular present indicative of iaceo, "I lie", a third conjugation verb.
UxorisT his is the genitive singular of uxor, "wife", and stands in apposition to Annæ.
Geñ Another abbreviation of Generosi. The "tilde" over the "n" indicates that letters have been omitted. [Vide "Introduction".]
Quæ This is the feminine nominative singular of qui, "who". The first quæ refers back to Annæ, and so leaves us in no doubt as to which of Anne and Thomas died; the second refers to Elizabethæ.
Sexto die"(On) the sixth day". Sexto is the masculine ablative singular of sextus, "sixth", agreeing with die, the ablative singular of dies.
Año DomT his is a simple abbreviation of Anno, together with a recognised abbreviation of Domini.
EjusEjus or eius is the genitive singular of is, ea or id and means "his", linking uxoris with Thomas Northmore. Alternative words for "his" is sui or suæ, but these would refer back to the subject of the sentence, namely, Elizabeth. Suæ refers back to her correctly in the following line.
2° The superscript "o" indicates that this is an abbreviation of secundo, "second". In the same way, 6° could have been used for sexto above.
Augu This is an abbreviation of Augusti, "of August", the genitive of Augustus.
Anno ... secundo "In the second year". The two words are linked grammatically as ablatives, despite being separated by aetatis suæ, "of her age".
4. Mamhead
M.S.
DOMINÆ
MARIÆ TERESIÆ LEACH
Vidua SIMONIS LEACH Equitis Balnei
Et
Filiæ Prænobilis Domini THOMÆ
CLIFFORD Baroni de Chudleigh
Quæ obiit 9 Octob 1715
Sacred to the memory of Lady Mary Teresia Leach, widow of [Sir] Simon Leach, Knight of the Bath, and daughter of the most noble Lord Thomas Clifford, Baron Chudleigh, who died on 9th October 1715.
Notes.
M.S. An abbreviation of Memoriæ Sacrum, "Sacred to the memory".
Memoriæ is the dative singular of memoria, implying "to"; sacrum is the neuter of sacer, "sacred", and can refer to any non-specified thing. Here it refers to the memorial itself - monumentum - which is a neuter noun anyway.
Dominæ Mariæ Teresiæ are all genitive - "to the memory of ..."
Vidua We should expect this to be viduæ, the genitive singular of vidua, in apposition to Dominæ, etc., just as filiæ is correctly genitive in the line below.
Simonis is the genitive of the Latin name Simo, "Simon".
Equitis Balnei Two more genitives: equitis, from eques, is in apposition to Simonis, while Balnei (from balneum) simply means "of the Bath".
Baroni The genitive singular of Baronus, in apposition to Domini Thomæ.
5. Manaton
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
CINERIBVS ET MEMORIAE
GVLIELMI CARWITHEN A.B.
HVIVS ECCLESIAE
ANN XLIV RECTORIS
FILIIQVE NATV MAXIMI
IOANNIS CARWITHEN A.B.
EIVSDEM ECCLESIAE PASTORIS
VIXIT ANN LXXIV MENS I DIEB V
DECESSIT PRID KAL NOBR
ANN MDCCCXXIV
H.S.E.
MARIA CARWITHEN
CONIVX GVLIELMI KARISSIMA
DEFVNCTA XV KAL SEPT
ANN MDCCCXVIII
CVM AGERET AETATIS ANN LXXV
To the ashes and to the memory of William Carwithen, B.A., for 44 years Rector of this church, and eldest son of John Carwithen, B.A., Minister of this same church. He lived for 74 years 1 month and 5 days, and died on 31st October 1824.
Here lies buried Mary Carwithen, dearly beloved wife of William, who died on 18th August 1818 aged 75.
Notes.
XP These are the Greek letters chi, rho, the first two letters of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], christos, "Christ".
A Ω These are ITLαITL and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Rev. xxi, 6.
Cineribus et Memoriæ Here we have a variation on Sacrum Memoriæ. The sacrum is omitted, though still understood: cineribus is the dative plural of cinus, cineris, "ash".
A.B.Artium Baccalaureus, "Bachelor of Arts".
Huius "Of this", the genitive singular of hic, hæc, hoc.
Ann The first ann is an abbreviation of annos. Those preceding a number starting with M are short for anno, "in the year". [Cf. 35 and 43, in each of which we find per annos for a period of time.]
Rectoris The genitive singular of rector, in apposition to Gulielmi.
Filiique The -que is "and" - "and (eldest) son".
Ioannis The genitive of Ioannes (often Iohannes), the Latin form of "John" (which explains the presence of "h" in "John").
Eiusdem The genitive singular of idem, eadem" the same".
Vixit ann "He lived for ..." In this line we have dieb which must stand for diebus, the ablative plural of dies, "day", so ann must stand for the ablative plural of annus, which is annis, and mens must stand for the ablative plural of mensis, which is mensibus.
Decessit The third person singular perfect indicative of decedo, "I depart".
Prid Kal Nobr This stands for pridie Kalendas Novembres, "the day before the Kalends of November", i.e. 31st October.
H.S.E This may stand either for Hic Sepulta Est or for Hic Sita Est, both meaning literally "here buried is". If it were a man buried rather than a woman, then the "S" would stand for either Sepultus or Situs, the masculine form of the respective adjectives or participles. (Sepultus is the past participle of sepelio, "I bury", while situs is the past participle of sino, "I place".)
Karissima "Dearest", qualifies coniux "wife" and is the feminine nominative singular superlative of carus, "dear". It is rarely spelt with "K".
Defuncta XV Kal SeptDefuncta is "dead" and refers back to coniux, a feminine noun. XV Kal Sept is XV Kalendas Septembres, the fifteenth day before the Kalends of September. The counting includes 1st September as one of the fifteen days, so this takes us back to 18th August.
Cum ageretCum here is "when" and is usually followed by a subjunctive verb when the action is in the past. Ageret is the third person singular imperfect subjunctive of ago, "I set in motion", but refers here to the passing of time. Ann is short for annos. The line can be translated as "when she had reached 75 years of her age", meaning either that she was 75 years old or that she was in her 75th year. There is some ambiguity here.
6. Staverton
S.M.
HENRICI FOX ATHERLEY M.A.
ANN XXIV PAROCHIÆ STAVERTONIENSIS
VICARII
QUI HANC ÆDEM
PROPRIO SUMPTU
MULTIS IN PARTIBUS
RESTITUIT
OBDORMIVIT AUG II MDCCCLXXIV
ÆTAT LXVIII
R.I.P.
FILIUS POSUIT
Sacred to the memory of Henry Fox Atherley M.A., for 24 years Vicar of the parish of Staverton, who restored this building in many of its parts at his own expense. He died on 2nd August 1874 aged 68. May he rest in peace. His son placed [this memorial].
S.M.
FRANCES ATHERLEY
Viri Reverendi
H.F.ATHERLEY
ut amantissimæ
Ita amatissimæ
uxoris
Quæ ob: Aug: X
MDCCCLVIII
R.I.P
Sacred to the memory of Frances Atherley wife of the Reverend H.F.Atherley. As [she was] most loving, so [was she] greatly loved. Who died on 10th August 1858. May she rest in peace.
Notes.
S.M.Sacrum Memoriæ, interchangeable with M.S. [Vide4.]
Henrici The genitive of Henricus, the Latin form of "Henry".
Stavertoniensis The suffix -iensis creates an adjectival form of "Staverton" or of any other place: Atheniensis, "Athenian"; Londoniensis, "of London". This is the genitive singular, qualifying parochiæ.
Qui "Who", referring back to Henrici, but nominative, not genitive.
Proprio sumptu "At (his) own expense", ablative of proprius sumptus, sumptus being a fourth declension masculine noun.
Multis in partibus It is common practice in Latin to sandwich a preposition between a noun and its qualifying adjective, the alternative word order in multis partibus being thought perhaps less elegant or possibly open to ambiguity. Here in governs the ablative plural of pars, "part"; multis is the ablative plural of multus, multa, multum, "many", qualifying partibus.
Restituit The third person singular perfect indicative of restituo, "I restore".
(Continues...)
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