Oritur sol et occidit sol

Vychází slunce i zapadá slunce

The sun rises and the sun sets

Origin of the work: 1652 Sárospatak

Editions:
  1652 Sárospatak

1912 Prague, J. V. Novák, Elegie Jana Am. Komenského nad smrtí Sigmunda Rákóczyho, in: Archiv pro badání o životě a díle J. A. Komenského, fol. 2

1974 Prague, Vybrané spisy J. A. Komenského, vol. VII, Czech translation by V. T. Miškovská-Kozáková

1983 Prague, J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 4

Contents:

In 1650 Comenius came to Sárospatak at the invitation of Sigismund Rákoczi, Prince of Transylvania, where he was at the latter’s wish to build a school according to his pansophic plans. Comenius was also drawn to the project for political reasons: he hoped that Prince Sigismund, who was one of the chief supporters of Protestantism and thereby also of the Czech emigration, would rise up against the Habsburgs and break their power. These hopes were, however, dashed when on February 4^th 1652 Prince Sigismund died of smallpox. His friends and the teachers and pupils of the Sárospatak school composed funeral poems in his honour, which were published some two months later in a small volume entitled Musae Patakinae (The Muses of Sárospatak). Comenius contributed this Latin epicedium (funeral ode), in which he bemoans the death of Prince Sigismund, propagator of culture and progress throughout the whole of Hungary, whom he likens to a sun dimmed by the will of God.

For further study, see also:

J. A. Comenii Opera omnia, vol. 4. Prague 1983, pp418-419

Vybrané spisy J. A. Komenského, vol. VII. Prague 1974, p805