Comments on: St Mary’s Kirkyard, Banff, Aberdeenshire

By: herzliebster

herzliebster — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:29:34 +0000

“Spes altera vitae” (also found on an inscription dated 1590 above a doorway on Advocates’ Close, Edinburgh) does not mean “Hope of Another Life,” in spite of the number of times it is so translated on the World Wide Web. “Hope of another life” would be “Spes alterae vitae.”

The word “altera” (other) agrees with “spes” (hope), not with “vitae” (”of/from life.”) So “Spes altera vitae” means either “another hope of life,” or, more likely, “Hope [is] next to / second to life.” As in the phrase “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” So I suppose it could be loosely translated as “where there’s life there’s hope.”

By: karen

karen — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:11:36 +0000

Thanks for your comment with more information about the Baird tomb. I thought that the kirkyard was really interesting and beautiful although in the middle of a rather incongruous build environment.

By: Prof Mike Bath

Prof Mike Bath — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:48:58 +0000

Great to find your picture of the Baird tomb in St Mary’s kirk, Banff. You’re right to comment on the ‘intricate detail’ of the tomb - the middle motif copies an emblem from Claude Paradin’s ‘Devises heroiques’ (1577) and is also found on other Scottish decorative carving (and painting) of this period. I’ve illustrated and discussed these in my book: Renaissance Decorative Painting in Scotland (NMS Publications, 2003), but I didn’t know about the Banff example when I wrote my book, so thanks for this one. One of my ex-students has also discovered the same emblem - showing grain stalks growing up out of heap of bones (and the motto: Spes altera vitae : ‘Hope of another life’) on a tombstone in Wales: This sepulchral slab, set in the parish church of St Mary & All Saints, Conwy, is that of Dorothy (d.1586), wife of Robert Wynn, who built the house Plas Mawr in Conwy, one of the finest renaissance houses in Wales, which you can now visit.