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MAEC - Museum of the Etruscan Academy and of the city of Cortona verified

Cortona, Tuscany, Italy closed Visit museumarrow_right_alt

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Egyptian funeral boat
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Etruscan chandelier
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Table of Cortona
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Luca Signorelli - Round Signorelli
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Musa Polimnia
Egyptian funeral boat
Etruscan chandelier
Table of Cortona
Luca Signorelli - Round Signorelli
Musa Polimnia

Other works on display

Description

The Tabula has a two-jaw handlebar with a spheroidal knob. It is made of a rather soft bronze with a high percentage of lead to make engraving easier. The inscription is opisthographical, that is, it fills an entire face, with 32 lines of writing (recto), and continues on the other side (verso) with 8 lines, and reveals a very accurate engraving of the letters; the alphabet is the one used between the end of the third and second centuries BC. in the Cortona area, where the sign for retrograde E occurs in the initial or final syllable to replace an ancient diphthong. Overall, the document presents 40 lines of text and 206 words (including 55 real units of lexicon and 10 forms of clitics, i.e. pronouns, conjunctions and postpositions), the third largest Etruscan text, after that of the Mummy of Zagreb and that of the " Table of Capua ”. Two hands are easily recognized: a main scribe has engraved the first 26 lines of the recto and the entire verso; the last 6 lines of the recto are due to a secondary scribe. The loss of the eighth fragment does not prejudice the understanding of the text as it contained only some of the long list of names transcribed in lines 24-32 of face A, prolonged on the first line of face B. Unanimously, scholars recognize in the text an important juridical act due to the presence of the zilath mechl rasnal, that is the praetor of Cortona, the supreme magistrate of the city with juridical functions. According to the recent interpretation by Mario Torelli, the act is divided into 7 parts, as many as there are indications in the text with a scale mark. The text refers in particular to a sale of land through a public claim made by the buyer on the thing in the presence of the seller and the magistrate who sanctioned the transaction at the end of the trial (in iure cessio in Roman law). In the first section (face A, lines 1-7) Petru Scevas, a character of modest origins (the noble Petru derives from the homonymous individual name of Umbrian origin) sells valuable land (we read the Etruscan word vina = vineyard) that pass into the property undivided of the Cusu sons of Laris, with a probable indication of measures of the land and of the counterpart in assets by the Cusus.

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