PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



1838. No. 9. 



January 22, 

 SIR Wm. R. HAMILTON, A.M., President, in the Chair. 



A Letter from Colonel Yorke was read, enclosing a copy 

 of Lord John Russell's letter to the Lord Lieutenant, in- 

 forming his Excellency that the Academy's address to the 

 Queen was very graciously received, and that her Majesty 

 has been pleased to consent to become the Patroness of the 

 Academy. 



Sir William Betham read a paper on the " Eugubian 

 Inscriptions" preserved at Gubbio, an Episcopal city in the 

 Papal states, on seven plates of bronze, which were disco- 

 vered on excavating the crypt of an ancient temple there in 

 the year 1444. Five of the inscriptions are in the old Etruscan 

 character, written from right to left, like the Hebrew and 

 other Shemitic languages ; two, the sixth and seventh, are 

 in what is now called the Roman character, written from left 

 to right. Two other plates were found at the same time, 

 and were sent to Venice in the year 1505, but never re- 

 turned. 



The object of Sir William Betham's paper was to show- 

 that the ancient Etruscan language was identical with the 

 Iberno-Celtic, and, that the Irish language, as it is still 

 spoken in this country, affords the true clue to the interpre- 



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