page_title: De mortuis nil nisi bonum
hierarchical_section_title: De mortuis nil nisi bonum
caption_attribution_description: English: Screen shot from National Library of Florence Italy. See web page for full details including a statement "Copyright type: Free" http://www.internetculturale.it/opencms/opencms/it/viewItemMag.jsp?id=oai%3Abncf.firenze.sbn.it%3A21%3AFI0098%3AMagliabechi%3ABVEE022154 Italiano: Lingua: greco antico (fino al 1453); Copyright: free; Localizzazione: Biblioteca nazionale centrale - Firenze - IT-FI0098&#160;; Inventario: CF005676570; Identificativo: info:sbn/BVEE022154; Teca digitale: Bncf Accessibilità: pubblico; Agenzia: Biblioteca nazionale centrale - Firenze Progetto: http://www.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/pagina.php?id=44 Testo a stampa; Monografia; Autore: Diogenes&#160;: Laertius; Titolo: ˜Diogenous Laertiou œPeri biōn, dogmatōn kai apophthegmatōn tōn en philosophiāi endokimēsantōn, biblia i. Diog. Laert. De vitis, dogm. &amp; apophth. clarorum philosophorum, libri 10. Hesychii ill. De iisdem philos. &amp; de aliis scriptoribus liber. Pythagor. philosophorum fragmenta. Omnia Græcè &amp; Lat. ex editione 2. I. Causauboni notæ ad lib. Diogenis, multo auctiores &amp; emendatiores; Data di pubblicazione: 1594
context_page_description: The Latin phrase De mortuis nihil nisi bonum "Of the dead, [say] nothing but good", abbreviated as Nil nisi bonum, is a mortuary aphorism, indicating that it is socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead as they are unable to justify themselves.
  The full sentence De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est translates to "Of the dead nothing but good is to be said". Freer translations into English are often used as aphorisms, these include: "Speak no ill of the dead", "Of the dead, speak no evil", and "Do not speak ill of the dead".
  The aphorism is first recorded in Greek, as τὸν τεθνηκóτα μὴ κακολογεῖν, attributed to Chilon of Sparta, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, in the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius, published in the early 4th century AD.
  The Latin version dates to the Italian Renaissance, from the translation of Diogenes' Greek by humanist monk Ambrogio Traversari.
context_section_description: The Latin phrase De mortuis nihil nisi bonum (also De mortuis nil nisi bene [dicendum]) "Of the dead, [say] nothing but good", abbreviated as Nil nisi bonum, is a mortuary aphorism, indicating that it is socially inappropriate to speak ill of the dead as they are unable to justify themselves. 
  The full sentence De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est translates to "Of the dead nothing but good is to be said". Freer translations into English are often used as aphorisms, these include: "Speak no ill of the dead", "Of the dead, speak no evil", and "Do not speak ill of the dead". 
  The aphorism is first recorded in Greek, as  τὸν τεθνηκóτα μὴ κακολογεῖν (tòn tethnekóta mè kakologeîn, "Do not speak ill of the dead"), attributed to Chilon of Sparta (ca. 600 BC), one of the Seven Sages of Greece, in  the Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (Book 1, Chapter 70) by Diogenes Laërtius, published in the early 4th century AD.
  The Latin version dates to the  Italian Renaissance, from the translation of Diogenes' Greek by humanist monk Ambrogio Traversari (Laertii Diogenis vitae et sententiae eorum qui in philosophia probati fuerunt, published 1433).
caption: The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius (1594)
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