Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/222



We have the satisfaction to present our readers with a fac-simile 018 line of a Latin poem, found unongsl the papyri, and unrolled under the direction of a learned gentleman now at Palermo, under the patronage of an illustrious per- sonage. For its authenticity we pledge our credit with the public, which we think cannot be doubted, when we subjoin to this great lite- rary curiosity the comment of the learned gentleman himself. " It is part of an epic poem in Litin. There are only nine verses in a page : in the verses a few let- ters are wanting : each verse is writ- ten at its full length ; and as it is hexameter, and in a large charac- ter, forms an extensive line, espe- cially as there is a full-stop after each word : the manuscript itself is very imperfect, and furnishes the latter part only of the respective pages. From this circumstance, and from the number of lost verses which appear necessary to supply the sense between the last verse of one page and the beginning of a se- cond, I conjecture that two-thirds of a page are wanting : these, per- haps, may be found afterwards ; and indeed it may not seem unrea- sonable to expect such an instance of good fortune, after having dis- covered, in a similar case, the two parts of Polystratus, as I mentioned in a former letter. The verses are about seventy : that of which the fac-simile is given is the last. This verse proves that the poem is not ended here. The cross under the first word seems to denote the num- ber of the book. The name of the writer may be in that part of the x -*> fa- 's i > 2