363 



The inseriptiotts alleged to be Etruscan are very mimerous, and a 

 vast number of considerable length, fae similes of the pretended Etrus- 

 can writings. In a typographical point of view, the work is of much 

 interest, for a very large portion of it may be said to consist of block- 

 engraved printing. The falsity of those records has been clearly de- 

 monstrated, and Inghiramio figures in the category of literary impostors. 

 Had they been authentic, all received ideas as to the origin and early 

 history of Eome would have been entirely changed. 



rOEGED PEEDICTIOKS AND EEMAEKAELE LITEEAET PEAIJDS CONNECTED WITH 

 THE DISCOVEET OF THE EEMAINS OE ST. CATHALDUS. 



St. Cataldus, or Cathaldus, of whom mention is made by Irish as well 

 as Italian historians^ was celebrated for his learning and piety on the 

 continent; he was born in Munster, was Bishop of Ratheny, and 

 afterwards of Tarento, in Italy, Archbishop Ussher had the trouble of 

 rescuing him from Dempster's Catalogue of Scotch Saints. He flou- 

 rished, his biographer states, late in the second or early in the third 

 century ; but, MacGeoghegan says, more probably in the seventh cen- 

 tury. 



There is a very singular account given by Alexander ab Alexandre,^' 

 of an alleged apparition of St. Cataldus, nearly 1000 years after his 

 death, and of a prediction of his, foretelling the devastations of]^[aples, 

 which was literally accomplished. 



This alleged prediction is the subject of much curious literary con- 

 troversy, and of an elaborate article in Eayle's Historical Dictionary, 

 A passage is cited in it from a work of the celebrated Jovian Pontanus, 

 intended to show that the alleged apparition, and prediction written on 

 leaden plates, were pious frauds. If it were so, it Avas as egregious an 

 imposture as the similar scientific one of the friar, Annius of Viterbo, in 

 the fifteenth century, who published a work which he ascribed to Bero- 

 sus the Chaldean, that was likewise stated to have been found written on 

 inscribed plates. Alexander's account is to the following eff'ect: — 

 About 1000 years after the death of St. Cataldus, he appeared to a 

 priest in N'aples, and told him to go dig up a book he had composed and 

 hid in a certain place, which, when found, was to be carried imme- 

 diately to the King of J^Taples, for it was a work which contained the 

 secrets of heaven." 



The priest averred the apparition was repeated several times, and, 

 having paid little attention to it, the order was not obeyed. At length 

 St. Cataldus appeared to him in church, dressed in his episcopal garb, 

 and commanded obedience to his orders, on pain of grievous punishment. 

 The priest went next day, in procession with the people, to the place 

 indicated, the ruins of an old church, where, on digging under one of 

 the walls, a box was found, and certain plates of lead with writing 



* " Genialium Dierum," ed. 1696, lib. iii,, p. 137. 



