AFTER MANY CENTURIES

Southland Times, Issue 19345, 10 September 1924, Page 5

AFTER MANY CENTURIES

REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES LIVY’S BOOKS ON ROME A HISTORY OF CHRIST. (by Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, September 8. The Rome correspondent of the Daily Mail states that Dr Mario Di Martinfusco’s discovery of the missing 107 books of Livy (of which many scholars expressed doubt) is now confirmed by Professor Delia, Superintendent of National Libraries. The Government will protect the rights over the documents, but will allow Dr Martinfusco liberty to study and translate them. The place where he discovered them remains a secret. Professor Delia states that Dr Martinfusco simultaneously discovered a history of Christ, written in the year 58. The Rome correspondent of the Sunday Observer says: “An Oratorian priest, a friend of Dr Martinfusco, who found the portions of Livy’s History of Rome, which had been missing for 1400 years, says that the discovery was made in a monastery at San Salvadore, which is famous for its library and manuscripts. A recent cablegram from Rome read: Dr Mario di Martinfusco confirms the report from Naples 'that he has come into the possession of Livy’s complete History of Rome, of which, up to the present, only thirty-five books out of 142 are extant except in an' optimised form. He states that when the work is ready for access to scholars he will say where he found the important portions, which have been missing for 1400 years.

Of Livy’s vast History of Rome only a small portion has come down to modern times. Only thirty-five books are now known to exist, and, of these, two are incomplete. The lost books seem to have disappeared between the seventh centuary and the revival of letters in the fifteenth century. Modern knowdedge of the contents of the books has been derived mainly from the so-called epitomes, of which there is nearly a complete series, the epitomes of only two books being missing. The work deals with the history of Rome down to the death of Drusus in 9 B.C. It begins with the landing of Aeneas in Italy.