An engraving of Justus Lipsius (Joost Lips, 1547–1606), Flemish humanist, founding father of Neostoicism. A half length portrait, with frilled ruff, doublet, furred coat, his left hand caressing a dog, his right hand on a book. This print is lettered at the upper centre: "MORIBVS ANTIQVIS."; around the portrait:" IVSTVS LIPSIVS. // ANNO ÆTATIS SVÆ LVIII. CHRISTI M.DC.V."; along the bottom: "LIPSIADÆ, velum est Timantis, imago. videri / Sol quoq sub piceâ non nisi nube potest. // Henr. d'Oultremannus.". On the verso, in pen and ink: "GASPARI SCIOPPIO V.C. et omni gener' / Laudis excellenti / mnemosynom / C[…]tique animi pignus …". The verse along the bottom of the print was written by the historian Henri d'Oultreman. The inscription on the verso – 'worthy of praise, a memento as a token of my soul' – records that this impression of the print was a gift to Gaspar Scioppius.

The print formed part of an album of portrait prints assembled by Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome. Described in an early nineteenth-century inventory of prints in George III's library as German Litterati, the album was dismantled later in the nineteenth century and its contents sold during the early twentieth century, when only a few of Cassiano's foreign non-royal portrait prints were retained for the collection.

For more information see Mark McDonald, The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. I: Ceremonies, Costumes, Portraits and Genre, 3 vols, Royal Collection Trust 2017, part of The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné, cat. no. 1610.