Such inscriptions as the following are
common:--
FELICISSIMVS DVLCIS,--GAVDENTIA IN PACE,
--SEVERA IN DEO VIVAS,--
or, with a little more fulness of expression,--
DVLCISSIMO FILIO ENDELECIO
BENEMERENTI QVI VIXIT
ANNOS II MENSE VNV
DIES XX IN PACE
To the sweetest son Endelechius, the well-
deserving, who lived two years, one month,
twenty days. In peace.
The word _benemerenti_ is of constant recurrence. It is used both of the
young and the old; and it seems to have been employed, with comprehensive
meaning, as an expression of affectionate and grateful remembrance.
Here is another short and beautiful epitaph. The two words with which it
begins are often found.
ANIMA DVLCIS AVFENIA VIRGO
BENEDICTA QVE VIXIT ANN: XXX
DORMIT IN PACE
Sweet Soul. The Blessed Virgin Aufenia,
who lived thirty years. She sleeps in peace.
But the force and tenderness of such epitaphs as these is hardly to be
recognized in single examples. There is a cumulative pathos in them, as
one reads, one after another, such as these that follow:--
ANGELICE BENE IN PACE
To Angelica well in peace.
CVRRENTIO SERVO DEI DEP. D. XVI. KAL
NOVEM.
To Currentius, the servant of God, laid in
the grave on the sixteenth of the Kalends of
November.
MAXIMINVS QVI VIXIT ANNOS XXIII
AMICVS OMNIVM
Maximin, who lived twenty-three years, the
friend of all.
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