was executed
and subscribed in the year 1495, by a certain "learned man," Edmundus
de Prato (Edmund Pratt) by name, licentiate in Canon Law, of Exeter
College, Oxford, who had actually been a pupil of Grocyn, the first
scholar who taught Greek in England.[*] No doubt, on the fame of this
new learning reaching his ears, the Vincey of the day, perhaps that same
John de Vincey who 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 mediaeval 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, "{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH
PSILI AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
EPSILON WITH VARIA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH
OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}
{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA
WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
XI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL
L