Page:She (1888).djvu/54

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She

years before had saved the relic from destruction and made the black-letter entry on the sherd in 1445, hurried off to Oxford to see if perchance it might avail to dissolve the secret of the mysterious inscription. Nor was he disappointed, for the learned Edmundus was equal to the task. Indeed his rendering is so excellent an example of mediæval learning and latinity that, even at the risk of sating the learned reader with too many antiquities, I have made up my mind to give it in fac-simile, together with an expanded version for the benefit of those who find the contractions troublesome. The translation has several peculiarities on which this is not the place to dwell, but I would in passing call the attention of scholars to the passage ‘duxerunt autem nos ad reginam advenaslasaniscoronantium,’ which strikes me as a delightful rendering of the original, ‘ἤγαγον δὲ ὡς βασίλειαν τὴν τῶν ξένους χύτραις στεφανούντων.’


Mediæval Black-Letter Latin Translation of the Uncial Inscription on the Sherd of Amenartas.

Amenartas e gen. reg. Egyptii vxor Callicratis ſacerdo Iſidis quā dei ſovēt demonia attēdt filiol' ſvo Tiſiſtheni iā moribūda ita mādat: Effugi quōdā ex Egypto regnāte Nectanebo cū patre tvo, pter mei amorē pejerato. Fvgiētes autē v'ſus Notū trans mare et xxiiij mēſes p'r litora Libye v'ſus Oriētē erran vbi eſt petra quedā gna ſcvlpta inſtar Ethio capi, deinde dies iiij ab oſ flu gni eiecti p'tim ſubmerſi ſumus p'tim morbo mortui ſu: in fine autē a fe hōībs portabamur r palv et vada. vbi aviū m'titvdo celū obūbrat dies x. donec adveni ad cavū quēdā montē, ubi olim gna vrbs erat, cauerne quo iēſe: dvxerūt autē nos ad reginā Aduenaſlaſaniſcoronātiū que magi vtebar et peritia omniū re et ſaltē pvlcri et vigore īlēeſci-