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ETBUEIA CAPTA. 



BY JOHN CAMPBELL, M.A. 



Professor in the Presbyterian College, Montreal, &c. , cftc. 

 Read January 16th, 1SS6. 



I have the honour to report to the Institute, as one of the most 

 important results of my studies in Hittite palaeography, the solution 

 of the Etruscan problem. It is unnecessary to occupy time with an 

 account of the many inscriptions in the Etruscan character, and of 

 the attempts that have been made to decipher them, as such infor- 

 mation can be obtained from sources open to every reader. Let it 

 suffice to say that thousands of inscriptions have been discovered, 

 and that, up to the present time, no satisfactory translation has been 

 made, even of the briefest.^ 



The original materials with which I intend principally to deal are 

 the epitaphs contained in Lanzi's Saggio di Lingua Etrusca and the 

 Eugubine Tables, so faithfully reproduced in the Atlas accompanying 

 Professor Breal's ingenious but most unsatisfying translation. Of 

 the Tables, seven only, and a small portion of an eighth, are in the 

 Etruscan character. The rest are written in the Roman alphabet, 

 and are Umbrian. These Umbrian tables are being translated, and 

 will shortly be presented to the world as the oldest Celtic document 

 extant. The proof of my discoveiy is chiefly to be found in the 

 rendering of the Etrusco-Eugubine inscription, which is authenticated 

 by its internal historical imity, the perfect accordance of its gram- 

 matical construction and vocabulary with those of a well-known 

 living language, and the harmony between it and the independent 

 Umbrian record. The evidence afforded by the numerous sepulchral 

 inscriptions is necessarily less convincing, as they are brief, consist 

 largely of proper names, present few constructions, and are popular, 

 not classical. But, inasmuch as they are more accessible and more 



1 Dr. W. Deecke, the leading Etruscologist of the day, claims only 34 words made out " with 

 tolerable certainty," exclusive of proper names. Encycl. Brit. Art. Etruria. 



