Pietas Homini Tutissima Virtus: Ultra-Soft Premium Cotton Backprint T-Shirt
This is one of the printer's marks of the Nutius/Nuyts printing family from Antwerp, Belgium, spanning from the 16th into the 17th century. The main motif of the marks used by the family is based on the theme of pietas, built around two storks and the Latin motto encircling them.
The Latin motto framing the border reads:
PIETAS HOMINI TUTISSIMA VIRTUS
Meaning: Pietas is the safest virtue for mankind. In this context, pietas doesn't just mean 'piety'; it also carries the meanings of a sense of duty, loyalty, and devotion to the gods, family, parents, ancestors, and society.
The encircling motto, 'PIETAS HOMINI TUTISSIMA VIRTUS', isn't a phrase Nutius came up with himself. It's a shortened form taken from the line 'et merito pietas homini tutissima virtus' in the didactic Latin poem Aetna, whose exact author is unknown today.
That section of the poem tells how, during an eruption of Mount Etna, while others rushed to save their belongings, two brothers from Catania - Amphinomus and his brother - carried their elderly parents out through the fire. The flames retreat before the pietas the young men show their parents and do them no harm. Thus, pietas appears in the poem as a virtue that protects against disaster.
In ancient natural lore, the stork is one of the strongest symbols of filial loyalty. Ancient accounts pass down the idea that young storks feed their aging parents.
Because of this, the stork is associated with the idea of avis pia, meaning the devoted or pious bird, in the Latin tradition. In Greek, pelargos also means 'stork'; deriving from this imagery, antipelargia/antipelargein was used as a concept expressing a child returning the favor to their parents, along with the idea of familial loyalty and care.
That's exactly what's happening in this scene: the young stork is offering the prey in its beak to the old and frail stork. For the Nutius family - a printing dynasty passed down from father to son - 'respect for the legacy of ancestors/masters' is a perfect theme.
There's also a pelican association here. A theological association. Let me explain: in medieval iconography, it was believed that the pelican would tear open its own breast to feed its young with its blood. This scene was especially linked to Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the idea of the Eucharist.