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Letter #3223

[Ioannes DANTISCUS] to Johann von HÖFEN (Jan HARTOWSKI)
Wormditt (Orneta), 1547-10-08

English register:

Dantiscus accepts the addressee’s excuse regarding the matter in which he holds him under suspicion. He has censured his ways not out of ill will, but out of concern that he might improve and not bring shame upon the court where Dantiscus himself was raised, especially since their kinship is almost universally known.

When Dantiscus was the addressee’s age, he avoided the dissoluteness and arrogance to which the addressee succumbs, and which are easily discerned in his conduct as well as in his physical bearing. He wishes for the addressee’s behaviour to correspond to the excuse he has offered. This will come to pass if he understands that it is unbecoming for a young man to maintain relations with harlots and corrupt individuals.

He asks for news from the court of the king [Sigismund I Jagiellon].




Manuscript sources:
1rough draft in Latin, in secretary's hand, AAWO, AB, D. 70, f. 313v (t.p.)

Auxiliary sources:
1register in Polish, 20th-century, B. PAU-PAN, 8250 (TK 12), f. 468

 

Text & apparatus & commentary Plain text Text & commentary Text & apparatus

 

Nobilis Patruelis dilecte.

Excusationem tuam in ea re, de qua te suspectum habemus, ita suscipimus et illi locum damus, ut mallemus rem aliter se habere et istam tuam purgationem veram esse. Nos quidem, quod te in vitiosis tuis moribus et in minus honesta vita reprehendimus, non malo facimus animo, vel quod tibi non bene velimus, sed magis hoc a nobis fit, ut te emendatiorem reddamus, ne nobis in ea aula, in qua enutriti sumus, sis dedecori, praesertim cum iam omnes fere norint te nobis sanguine iunctum esse.

Cum in tua essemus aetate, nihil magis, quam lasciviam istam et superbiam, quae duo vitia tibi adhaerent et ex morum et corporis tui compositione dignosci a quolibet possunt, fug[ie]bamus. Idem ut et tibi aliquando in mentem veniat, optamus, quo tandem vita et mores tui excusationi, quam praetendis, respondeant. Idque futurum est, si cogitaveris aeque inhonestum esse et adulescentem non decere a scortis et impuris hominibus ob rem turpem quicquam accipere, quam illis conferre et ob ipsam turpitudinem illis adhaerere.

Si quid novarum rerum in aula serenissimae Sigismund I Jagiellon (Zygmunt I) (*1467 – †1548), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1506-1548); Duke of Głogów (Glogau) (1499-1506), Duke of Opava (1501-1506), Governor of Silesia (1504-1506); son of King Kazimierz IV Jagiellon and Elisabeth of Austria⌊maiestatis regiaeSigismund I Jagiellon (Zygmunt I) (*1467 – †1548), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1506-1548); Duke of Głogów (Glogau) (1499-1506), Duke of Opava (1501-1506), Governor of Silesia (1504-1506); son of King Kazimierz IV Jagiellon and Elisabeth of Austria⌋ erit, fac, ut diligenter ad nos perscribas.

Bene vale.