Latin sundials mottoes are a fascinating crevice of the Latin Language corpus. I discovered a few of these refrains on Latin quotations websites, and found that most of them didn’t provide the source for the text, and my bs detector went off big time. So, I went and did a little digging. Unfortunately (though non uninterestingly) most of these quotes are at best of very late renaissance and baroque origin, for I originally imagined these quotes as being seen in ancient Roman times; not to be. But in any case, they represent an attractive fragment of the Neo Latin literary canon. Many are very catchy; mox nox for example.
In any event, I was not aware that they existed, so here are a few translated in to Spanish and English for your reading pleasure. The standard work on this fairly esoteric subject is The Book of Sun-dials, by Margaret Scott Gatty, first published in 1872, and then in an expanded edition in 1889. This work mentions the actual locations and provenance of the quotes, which is of great use. I would have preferred to be talking about mottoes from ancient times, but it has proved impossible to find true “ancient Roman” era sundial mottoes, something which disappointed me. I hope you get something out of this small collection and will appreciate the attempt at sourcing them correctly; perhaps it will serve as a good source for your next sundial inscription! Vale.
I. «Post tenebras lux». Después de las tinieblas, luz.
—Del libro de Job, 17:12.
Según Margaret Scott Gatty; “A modern dial, near the corner of a house with a high garden wall , at Varenna, on the Lake of Como , bears this inscription”. [Un reloj de sol moderno, ubicado cerca de la esquina de una casa con una pared de jardín alta, en Varenna, por el lago de Como, lleva esta inscripción].
II. «Sine sole sileo». Sin
el sol me callo. Without the sun, I go quiet.
—Se encuentra en la capilla san Felipe, Niza, and Pino in Piamonte y Alghero en Cerdeña. Fuente: «The Book of Sun-dials», Alfred Gatty.
III. «Mox nox». Pronto [viene] la noche. Night [is coming] shortly.
De la misma autora:
“is a dial motto at Elsworth, near Cambridge. It also occurs on a flint-built church, near Dennington, Suffolk, where the dial is fixed on the battlement, and beneath, on a scroll is:
Mox nox,
the moment past,
laid many fast”.
IV. «Vita in motu [est]». La vida está en movimiento. Life is in flux. Found only in Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England, 18th century.
V. «Horas non numero nisi serenas». Numero solamente las horas serenas/soleadas. (I count only summer hours).
Gatty: “This elegant motto is on dials at Sackville College, East Grinstead; on the Town Hall at Aldeburgh in Suffolk, which was built circa 1500, and has been recently restored”. [Este lema elegante se encuentra sobre relojes de sol en Sackville College, East Grinstead; en el ayuntamiento en Aldeburgh, Suffolk, que fue construido c. 1500, y ha sido restaurado].
VI. «Si sol deficit, respicit me nemo». Si falta el sol, nadie me mira.
—In the cloisters at Chambery.
VII. «Tacitis senescimus horis». En las horas silentes nos envejecemos We grow old in the silent hours. —En Bozel (Savoy).
VIII. «Digitus dei ducet me». El dedo de Dios me guiará. The finger of God will lead me. —Sobre una iglesia en Villeneuve sur Vère (Tarn), 1859».
IX. [Nobis] pereunt et imputantur. Las [horas] perecen y te pasan la cuenta. ([The hours] are consumed and will be charged [to our] account)
—De Marcial, Epigrama XX, Liber V.
Texto original:
«Nunc vivit necuter sibi, bonosque
Soles effugere atque abire sentit,
Qui nobis pereunt et inputantur.
Quisquam vivere cum sciat, moratur?».
X. «Utere, non numera». Utiliza las horas, no las cuente.
—St. Foy (Savoy).
XI. «[Fronte capillata], post est occasio calva». La oportunidad está calva atrás. [O sea, agarrar la oportunidad cuando se te presente]. Opportunity is bald from the back.
Gatty: “on the church tower at Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. The
dial bears the date of its renewal in 1818, but the motto is now almost
obliterated”. It is also on Horton
Church, Dorset.
En el castellano, existen varios equivalentes, como:
«Cuando te dieren el anillo, pon el dedillo»;
«cuando te dieren el buen dado, échale la mano» y
«cuando pasan rábanos, comprarlos».
Fuentes históricas:
1. Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum doctrinale, 5, 123; 20:
«Fronte capillata post hoc occasio calva».
2. Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia, Chiliades, 1, 670; 16:
«Ad quod erudite simul et eleganter allusit quisquis is fuit, qui versiculum hunc conscripsit: Fronte capillata, post haec Occasio calva.
3. Masenius Iacobus, Palaestra Styli Romani, 3, 3, 136; 4: «Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva».
Explicación de The Book of Sun-dials: "Take time by the forelock." says the adage. The whole line is, "Fronte capillata, post est occasio calva," as already stated (see No. 322). The above motto is on the church tower at Yaxley, Huntingdonshire. The dial bears the date of its renewal in 1818, but the motto is now almost obliterated. It is also on Horton Church, Dorset.
"The moment that is past returns
no more;
The hour mis-spent can never be recalled!
Old Chronos has but one poor lock before,
His head, behind, is altoegether bald.
Take that from me".
—Thomas
Elwood.
XII. «Umbra transit, lux manet». La sombra pasa, la luz permanece.
—Se encuentra en la iglesia de Saint Marcin en Jarocin, Polonia, y realizado en el año 1910».
XIII. «Nunc est bibendum». Ya es hora de tomar. (Now is the time to drink).
From The Book of Sun-dials: On an Inn at Libourne; and on a cabaret at Beaucroissant, dated 1796-1808. Also at La Murette (Isère). [Existe un equivalente en francés: «c'est l'heure de boire» [es la hora de beber], sobre una taberna en Libourne; y en un cabaré en Beaucroissant, datado 1796-1808. También se encuentra en La Murette (Isère)].
XIV. «Ruit hora». La hora se escapa. The hour hastens.
Fuente histórica: Benessa Damianus (Damiano Benessa), De morte Christi, 9; 177:
«Sed volucris
ruit hora tamen, iam tempus et instat, Quo victor redeat recidiuaque
menbra resumat, Spemque simul faciat repetita carne sepultis».
XV. «Phoebo absente nil sum». Sin Febo, soy nada. Without Phœbus I am nothing. (Febo es la personificación del sol).
—En Château de Gordes / Gordes Castle – Gordes, Vaucluse.
XVI. «Phoebus in hoc sphera dat nascere temporis horis». Sobre esta esfera, Febo permite las horas del tiempo nacer. On this sphere Phœbus permits the hours of time to be born.
Gatty: “On a dial at the Château de l'Isle d'Aval, near Dinan, the residence of M. Gaulter du Mottray. The dial is on a white marble slab and was brought from the Château du Vœu Meloisel, which belonged in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the family of Desnos: on the upper part there is a shield quartered with the arms and mottoes of the families of Desnos and Matignon, and surrounded by the legend, «En tout par honneur»”. [].
XVII. «Ecce hora». He aquí la hora, o ya es la hora. Lema recogido por Charles Leadbetter, en su Mechanick Dialling. No parece figurar en ningún edificio o iglesia históricos.
Fuentes históricas:
1. Ernaldus Bonaevallis, Meditationes, 189, 1740B: «Et ecce hora orationis nona est».
2. Adamus Scotus, De ordine habitu et professione canonicorum ordinis Praemonstratensis, 198, 0527B «Ecce horae, fratres, et tempora, in quibus instare nobis praecipit orationibus sanctus Augustinus».
XVIII. «Aspiciendo senescis». Mientras me miras,
envejeces. You age as you gaze upon me.
Gatty: “This motto is painted on the south wall of a house in the Place Bellevue, Nice, near the old port. It is close under the roof, much wider than long in shape, and has a red border. The words are underneath the dial in capitals. Part of the plaster having fallen off, the date has been left imperfect: “26 Giugno 182—”. The same inscription is on an upright dial on a house wall in one of the squares at Aix-Les-Bains, Savoy, dated 1853, and the maker’s name “A.F. Arsenio Capucinorum” below”.
XIX. «Ita vita». Así es la vida. That's life. C’est la vie.
—Ubicado en Gray's Court en la Universidad University de
Ripon and York St John, York, England (anteriormente
St John's College). Insert image.
Fuente histórica: Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Spiritu Sancto, 16, 0748C: «Sicut enim vita aeterna est cognoscere solum et verum Deum, ita vita aeterna est cognoscere Iesum Christum, ita vita aeterna est cognoscere Spiritum sanctum: quem sic non videt mundus, quemadmodum Patrem: sic non cognoscit, quemadmodum Filium».
XX. «Sol omnibus lucet». El sol brilla para todos. (The sun shines for all).
—Ubicado en el El Observatorio Valongo, Rio de Janeiro.
Fuentes históricas:
1 Petronius, Satyricon Fragmenta et Poemata, Cap. 100:
«Quid autem? Non commune est, quod natura optimum fecit? Sol omnibus lucet. Luna innumerabilibus comitata sideribus etiam feras ducit ad pabulum».
2. Alcuinus, Epistolae, 100, 0146C: «Et sicut unus sol omnibus lucet, non tamen propter oculorum distantiam aequaliter ab omnibus videtur, ita aeterna beatitudo omnibus in Dei regno iustis perdonabitur, licet meritorum sublimitas alios maiore gloria coronet».
Bibliografía:
—Gatty, Alfred (Margaret Scott Gatty), The Book of Sun-dials. London: Bell and Baldy, 1872.
—Gatty, Alfred, The Book of Sun-dials. London: George Bell and Sons, 1889.
—Hyatt, Alfred H., A Book of Sundial Mottoes, London: Philip Wellby, 1903.
—Latin sundial mottoes with Spanish translations (website); http://www.sundials.co/mottoesp.htm
—Leadbetter, Charles, Mechanick Dialling. London: Caslon, 1773.
—Wikipedia (website), List of sundial mottos; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sundial_mottos
Galería:
Reloj de sol/vitral, ubicado en Gray's Court
