A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[To the same [person] about violets] If times brought me white lilies as usual or there were the beautiful rose with its sweet blush, I gathering these in the country or on the ground of the poor garden would send small gifts wishing they were great. But since I do not have the first, I pay with the second: he offers vetches who would bear roses with love. Yet among the scented grasses which we have sent they have the noble seed of purple violet. They breathe equally stained with royal purple and this scent saturates the leaves, hence their beauty. They do both, that you (pl) might have both equally and let the scent of the wares be perennial beauty for the flower.

Original letter:

[Ad eandem de violis] Tempora si solito mihi candida lilia ferrent aut speciosa foret suave rubore rosa, haec ego rure legens aut caespite pauperis horti misissem magnis munera parva libens. Sed quia prima mihi desunt, vel solvo secunda: profert qui vicias, ferret amore rosas. Inter odoriferas tamen has quas misimus herbas purpureae violae nobile germen habent. Respirant pariter regali murice tinctae et saturat foliis hinc odor, inde decor. Hae quod utrumque gerunt pariter habeatis utraque, et sit mercis odor flore perenne decus.

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Radegund and Agnes, whom Radegund had had installed as her abbess, when he visited Poitiers. They became good friends and exchanged epistolary poems and small gifts until the women died. After her death, Fortunatus wrote a life of Radegund emphasizing her ascetic qualities.

Printed source:

Venantii Fortunati Opera Poetica , ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 193, Librum VIII, vi.

Date:

after 567