Janus Pannonius

Aurispa nothing writes, though learn'd; for he
By a wise silence seems more learn'd to be.

Janus Pannonius (Hungarian: Csezmiczei János or Kesencei János, Latin: Ioannes Pannonius, Croatian: Ivan Česmički; 29 August 1434 – 27 March 1472) was an influential intellectual in the Kingdom of Hungary, a Latinist, poet, diplomat and Bishop of Pécs.

Quotes

• Tam doctus scribat cur nil Aurispa, requiris?
  Credatur multò doctus ut esse magis.
  • Aurispa nothing writes, though learn'd; for he
    By a wise silence seems more learn'd to be.
  • De Aurispa ("Of Aurispa"), in Sales epigrammatum, tr. James Wright (London, 1663), p. 122

• Quid tibi cum claudo, dicebam, Prisca, marito?
  Optimus est claudus, Prisca, fututor, ait.
  • In Priscam

• Dum quasses aliena fulcra moechus,
  uxori propriae, Severe, parcis.
  Sic, cui cellula rumpitur Falerno,
  Vicina bibit Hodus e taberna.
  • In adulterum

• Hic situs est Janus, patrium qui primus ad Histrum,
  duxit laurigeras, ex Helicone Deas.
  Hunc saltem titulum, Livor, permitte sepulto,
  invidiae non est in monumenta locus.
  • Elegia, ix, l. 117

Disputed

• In Fortunam
  Inveni portum spes et fortuna valete
  Nil mini vobiscum ludite nunc alios.
  • Mine haven's found; Fortune and Hope, adieu.
    Mock others now, for I have done with you.
  • Inscription on the tomb of Francesco Pucci in the church of St. Onuphrius (St. Onofrio), Rome. Translation by Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part II, Section III. Memb. 6. Quoted by him as a saying of Prudentius. Attributed to Janus Pannonius. See Jani Panuonii, Onofrio, Part II. Folio 70. Found in Laurentius Schradern's Monumenta Italiæ, Folio Helmæstadii, p. 164. Attributed to Cardinal La Marck in foot-note to Le Sage's Gil Blas. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 233. Cf. Greek Anthology, bk. IX, no. 49. Notes and Queries, 6th s., vol. 2 (16 July 1898), p. 41. A different version is given in W. F. H. King (ed.) Classical and Foreign Quotations (1889), p. 257, no. 2345:

    Inveni portum, Spes et Fortuna valete,
    Sat me lusistis, ludite nunc alios.

    Fortune and Hope, farewell! I've reached the port;
    Enough you've tricked me, now with others sport.

External links

• Iani Pannonii...Poëmata (Utrecht, 1784)
• Iani Pannonii opera quae manserunt omnia, vol. 1 (Budapest, 2006), edited by Julius Mayer
• Epigrammata Lasciva - Pajzán epigrammák, translated into Hungarian by Győző Csorba