Otto van Veen

Inscribed on the album page below the design, in brown ink, "Mortis certitúdo (title) / Divesne prisce natus ab Inacho / Nil interest, an pauper et infima / De gente sub Dio moveris / Victima, nil miserantis Orci. / Omnes eòdem cogimúr, omniúm / Versatúr úrna, seriús ocyús / Sors exitúra, et nos in aeternúm / Exiliúm impositúra cymbae" (Whether thou be rich and sprung from ancient Inachos [the first king of Argos], or dwell beneath the canopy of a heaven poor and lowly birth, it makes no difference: thou art pitiless Orcus' [Pluto's] victim. We are all being gathered to one and the same fold. The lot of every one of us is tossing about in the urn, destined sooner, or later, to come forth and place us in Charon's skiff for everlasting exile). The text is from Horace, "Odes", Book II, 3, lines 21-28.