GALLIA ROMANA
Database of texts and images
|
Ville | Vers-Pont-du-Gard (Gard, 30) |
Subject(s) | Pont du Gard |
Author(s) | Zinzerling, Just |
Dutch scholar (1590-1618) | |
Resource type | Printed book |
Date | 1616 |
Inscription | |
References | Zinzerling 1616, pp. 214-216 |
Bibliography | Bernard 1859, pp. 1-14 ; Provost 1999-2, p. 736 ; Lemerle 2005, pp. 88-91 |
Remarks | Zinzerling stayed in France from 1612 to 1616. The 'Pont du Gard' was probable the most universally admired Gallo-Roman monument |
Transcription
« Ad quatuor leucas abest hinc stupendum illud humanę industrię opus Pons Gardius. Pons appellatur ą parte sui inferiore, quę transitum hominibus & jumentis prębuit : Cęterłm superiłs aquęductus : gardius ą fluvio Gardo, cui impositus. Triplex arcuum est ordo. Inferior sex tantłm continet, medius vndecim ; superior, triginta. Incumbit his canalis sex pedum in altitudinem, trium in latitudinem contectus, pręgrandibus saxis. Altitudinem operis qui metiti [171] fuere, notant esse 82. pedum. Quis magnam hanc molem excitarit non constat : nec etiam mentio eius ulla sit ą scriptoribus antiquis. De eo ita cecinit Theodorus Beza. Pyramidum ostentat barbara Memphis opus. Plus est quod cernis, triplicis coniugere pontis Fornicibus montes sic potuisse duos Et plus est (victam quo se Natura fatetur) Imposuisse ipsis flumina fluminibus. Et rursum plus est contempto laudis honore Artificem nomen subticuisse suum Mire opifex, quod tu fecisti sit licet ingens Quod non fecisti plus ego miror opus. » Barbarous Memphis boasts its pyramids. But a greater thing still to see is three bridges united in one Bringing together two mountains And, what is more (and a task which Nature paled before), Making rivers run over rivers. And there is yet something that deserves even greater praise And this is the silence which covers the architect's name. Admirable worker, what you have done is fine indeed, But what you have left undone, I admire all the more'. |