DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0070
54
CERVETRI.
CHAP, XXXIII.
Ti, Ta, Tu, Te." Now, it must be observed, that this
inscription, though found in an Etruscan tomb, is not in
that character, but in Greek, of very archaic style ; 4 and
AK mi B ® [ K PpsaiffA m © P^Fvtrt ^T
PELASGIC ALPHABET AND PRIMER.
there is every reason to believe it a relic of the earliest
possessors of Csere, the Pelasgi, who are said to have intro-
duced letters into Latium.5 From the palaeography, this
is indubitably the most ancient monument extant which
* The difference between this alphabet
and the genuine Etruscan one, found on
a rase at Bomarzo, is very apparent.
See the fac-simile in Vol. I. p. 225. That
has but twenty letters, this twenty-five,
and both in their form and collocation
there are wide differences. That has the
Etruscan peculiarity of running from
right to left. In Greek letters this
alphabet would be thus expressed : —
A, B, r, A, E, F (the digamma), Z, H
(the ancient aspirate), 0,1, K, A, M (this
is the letter effaced), N, H, O, IT, Q (kop-
pa), P, 2, T, T, X, *, T. It will be re-
marked that the same force has not been
assigned to certain of these letters where
they occur in the primer, and the reader
will be ready to dispute my accuracy.
Let him break a lance then with Profes-
sor Lepsius, who is my authority, and
who gives his views of this inscription in
the Ann. Inst. 1836, pp. 186—203.
5 Solinus, Polyhist. cap. VIII.
CERVETRI.
CHAP, XXXIII.
Ti, Ta, Tu, Te." Now, it must be observed, that this
inscription, though found in an Etruscan tomb, is not in
that character, but in Greek, of very archaic style ; 4 and
AK mi B ® [ K PpsaiffA m © P^Fvtrt ^T
PELASGIC ALPHABET AND PRIMER.
there is every reason to believe it a relic of the earliest
possessors of Csere, the Pelasgi, who are said to have intro-
duced letters into Latium.5 From the palaeography, this
is indubitably the most ancient monument extant which
* The difference between this alphabet
and the genuine Etruscan one, found on
a rase at Bomarzo, is very apparent.
See the fac-simile in Vol. I. p. 225. That
has but twenty letters, this twenty-five,
and both in their form and collocation
there are wide differences. That has the
Etruscan peculiarity of running from
right to left. In Greek letters this
alphabet would be thus expressed : —
A, B, r, A, E, F (the digamma), Z, H
(the ancient aspirate), 0,1, K, A, M (this
is the letter effaced), N, H, O, IT, Q (kop-
pa), P, 2, T, T, X, *, T. It will be re-
marked that the same force has not been
assigned to certain of these letters where
they occur in the primer, and the reader
will be ready to dispute my accuracy.
Let him break a lance then with Profes-
sor Lepsius, who is my authority, and
who gives his views of this inscription in
the Ann. Inst. 1836, pp. 186—203.
5 Solinus, Polyhist. cap. VIII.