# antea ab eodem viro testamento dotatum ornari coeptum



## ithinkthereforeiamb

Hello! 
I am translating funerary inscriptions on women's tombs from the 16th-17th century in Rome as part of a research project. I have no formal training in Latin, and try to figure things out using my Wheelock's and knowledge of Italian. To no one's surprise, I often find myself having trouble. 
I am currently working on an inscription for a Roman noblewoman, Lucrezia Pierleoni. She has a rather nice tomb in Santa Maria in Consolazione in Rome. The inscription accompanying her bust is as follows:

"Regi cui omnia vivunt Lucetria de Perleonibus Luca de Perleonibus Jur. Utr. Doctoris Filia Nobiliss. Romanorum et Austricae Gentis sola relicta andrea olim uxor orbata sacellum hoc antea ab eodem viro testamento dotatum ornari coeptum vivens honorificentus exornandem absolvemdunque curavit"

So far I've managed to extract that the epitaph is tooting her illustrious lineage and that she is the last of the Pierleoni line. I can also gather that she discusses her involvement in the decoration of the chapel (initiated by her husband, Andrea Pellucchi). Because I don't always have a grasp for subtlety - I can't figure out if the inscription is her own voice, and that she might be taking credit for the establishment of her tomb that this inscription accompanies. Are we to gather that Lucrezia may have set up her own monument? It doesn't seem any party takes claim for putting up her monument in this instance, as is the usual custom. 

Many thanks in advance for looking!
decineris


----------



## Scholiast

Greetings, ithinkthereforeiam

Portions of this I can do immediately, but some of it is most unclear, if only (though not only) because in the given transcription there are at least four errors, _viz._:


ithinkthereforeiamb said:


> Lucetria


Clearly this must be "Lucretia"



ithinkthereforeiamb said:


> andrea


This should be capitalised



ithinkthereforeiamb said:


> honorificentus


The word does not exist, but could be a slip for _honorificentius_



ithinkthereforeiamb said:


> exornandem


Probably should be _exornandam_.

These may be errors of transcription, or originate from the engraver. Can you tell us more? Is the entire inscription in majuscule? How well preserved is the lettering? Could you even supply a photo?

Without closer information such as this, it will be difficult to provide more detailed and accurate help.

Σ


----------



## exgerman

_Lucretia andrea _(sp?)_ olim uxor orbata hoc sacellum (antea ab eodem viro testamento dotatum ornari coeptum) exornandem absolvemdu*m*que curavit_

Lucretia, formerly the wife, now the widow, of Andrea saw to it that this shrine,  endowed by the will of her late husband, and begun to be adorned by him, was decorated completely, thus performing his vow.

Everything else is secondary information.

_vivens_---it was finished before she died, and the inscription was set up at that time rather than after her death.

_Regi cui omnia vivunt_  -- the work is dedicated to God through whom all things live.

You got the details of her parentage right.

I don't understand _honorificentus. _You'd expect some boast about the quality of the work or her piety in completing it.


----------



## Scholiast

salvete!

A pedantic correction, suitable for an old schoolmaster to make:


exgerman said:


> _Regi cui omnia vivunt_ -- the work is dedicated to God through whom all things live.


'..._*for*_ whom all things live'.

Σ


----------



## exgerman

Apparently, it's a quote from Psalm 94. It is used in the office of Matins for the dead, so it is an appropriate rhetorical flourish on a funerary inscription.
_
Through_ is of course wrong. I blame mental interference from the Nicene creed (... through whom all things were made...)


----------



## Scholiast

Well spotted, exgerman (#5).

But...


exgerman said:


> absolvemdu*m*que


...calls for another schoolmasterly correction: _absolve*n*dumque_.

Σ


----------



## exgerman

Scholiast said:


> But...
> 
> ...calls for another schoolmasterly correction: _absolve*n*dumque_.
> 
> Σ



I was slavishly quoting the OP. 

Maybe I should have added a [sic]. Who knows if the OP mistyped or the stonemason did.


----------

