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 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, ‘.’

menartas e gen. reg. Egyptii vxor Callicratis acerdo Iidis quā dei ovēt demonia attēdt filiol' vo Tiitheni iā moribūda ita mādat: Effugi quōdā ex Egypto regnāte Nectanebo cū patre tvo, pter mei amorē pejerato. Fvgiētes autē v'us Notū trans mare et xxiiij mēes p'r litora Libye v'us Oriētē erran vbi et petra quedā gna cvlpta intar Ethio capi, deinde dies iiij ab o flu gni eiecti p'tim ubmeri umus p'tim morbo mortui u: 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 iēe: dvxerūt autē nos ad reginā Aduenalaanicoronātiū que magi vtebar et peritia omniū re et altē pvlcri et vigore īlēeci-