The
word-for-word translation of the phrase is :"Same having-changed I-rise". :
Eadem mutata resurgo. The sense is better rendered in English as "
I rise again changed but the same".
Jakob Bernoulli's tombstone that follows a
logarithmic spiral's shape. The phrase was first known to be used by
Jakob Bernoulli (1654-1705), a member of the
famous Swiss mathematical family. He had studied logarithmic spirals during his life and directed for a spiral and the motto to appear on his tombstone in
Basel. Bernoulli was referring to the fact that the logarithmic spirals are self-similar, meaning that upon applying any
similarity transformation to the spiral, the resulting spiral is congruent to the original untransformed one.
College motto The
College of St Hild and St Bede at the
University of Durham adopted this phrase for its motto; it hangs in the Vernon Arms (
the Vern). It is also used as the motto of the
Collège de 'pataphysique. ==References==