The following Paper was then read by the Author 
ON THE ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. By the Rev. Isaac 
Taylor, M.A. 
T HE origin of the Etruscan people and the nature of their 
language is a mystery which has perhaps excited more 
fruitless curiosity than any similar question. Niebuhr believed 
the problem would prove to be insoluble ; at the same time he con- 
sidered its solution to be of such great importance that he expressed 
himself willing to share his fortune with the man who should be so 
fortunate as to make the discovery. 
# The question is important because it is bound up with the early 
history of Rome.. The first chapter of Roman history cannot be 
truly written until the Etruscan secret has been discovered. 
At the time when legend ceases and history begins, the mighty 
Etruscan nation ruled Italy from Vesuvius to the Alps, Rome her- 
self being included in the Etruscan dominion, and being ruled by 
an Etruscan Lucumo. It was from her Etruscan masters that she 
acquired the rudiments of culture, and learned the arts of masonry, 
of pottery, of metal-working, and of writing. When at last the 
Romans had freed themselves from the Etruscan dominion, a 
struggle for supremacy commenced, which was not finally concluded 
for six centuries. In two centuries more the Etruscan language 
died out. This nation — once so mighty, so wealthy, so civilized— 
disappeared utterly, leaving behind only the crumbling walls of 
deserted cities, still encompassed by vast cemeteries which have 
filled the museums of Europe with costly objects of luxury and 
ar t vases, cups, lamps, statues, mirrors, gems, jewellery, and 
armour. . More than all, these tombs have yielded 3,000 inscrip- 
tions, written in a strange, uncouth language, wholly different from 
any form of speech which is known to have been spoken in any of 
the neighbouring lands. 
The interpretation of this language is the only philological pro- 
blem of first-rate importance which still remains unsolved. I have 
undertaken to set before you to-night an account of the progress 
which has been made towards its solution. 
Not long ago there were three such unsolved problems. Three 
ancient civilizations bequeathed to the modern world a sealed 
literary treasure. The temples of Egypt, the palaces of Assyria, 
the tombs of Etruria, had preserved three unknown literatures, 
