Nec pluribus impar
Nec pluribus impar (Literaly: "Not unequal to many (suns)") is a Latin motto coined by Louis XIV to describe his rule and leadership.
The phrase, literaly translated as "Not unequal to many (suns)"[1] can be interpreted as "None his equal"[2][3] The phrase participated to the allegory of Louis XIV as the "Sun king", and his identification with the sun god Apollo.[4][5]
The "Nec pluribus impar" motto was often inscribed together with the symbol of the sun-king (a head within sunrays) on buildings, as well as on cannons. The motto appeared as early as 1658 on a medal.[6] The classical de Vallière guns in particular bear the motto and the symbol, even for those founded long after Louis XIV's death.
Louis XIV himself wrote about the motto:
"Those who saw me managing the cares of royalty with such ease and with such confidence induced me to add the sphere of the earth, and as its motto NEC PLURIBUS IMPAR, by which they meant to flatter the ambitions of a young king, in that with all my capacities, I would be just as capable of ruling still other empires as would the sun of still illuminating still other worlds with its rays. I known that some obscurity has been found in these words, and I have no doubt that the same symbol might have suggested some happier ones. Others have been presented to me since, but this one having already been used in my buildings and in an infinite number of other things, I have not deemed appropriate to change it."
— Mémoires for the instruction of the Dauphin Louis XIV 1622.[7]
Notes
- ^ "He was le Roi Soleil, whose matchless splendour was expressed by the motto Nec Pluribus Impar - not unequal to many suns." in Baroque by John Martin, John Rupert Martin p.242
- ^ SAT Subject Test: World History page 247 by Deborah Vess [1]
- ^ The Routledge Dictionary of Latin Quotations page 184 by Jon R. Stone [2]
- ^ The Palace of the Sun By Robert W. Berger p.15
- ^ A Lust for Virtue by Philip F. Riley p.25 [3]
- ^ The Palace of the Sun by Robert W. Berger p.15 [4]
- ^ Edition and translation P. Sonnino, New York, 1970, p.104, quoted in The Palace of the Sun by Robert W. Berger, p.15 [5]