Around the works of Titus Livius

Mystification or reality?

We must go back to the best times of the Renaissance, when the people took part in the joy of the scholars who had discovered a Greek or Latin code, to have an idea of ​​the emotion that was suddenly awakened in Italy, in Europe and in the two Americas at the announcement of the prodigious discovery of the parts that were missing from the work of Titus Livius.

Of the one hundred and forty-two books that the great historian wrote, only thirty-five have come down to us. To compose them, he had used seventy-six years of his life and that is not too much when we consider that it is a question of telling the history of eight centuries!

The man who, in a convent of southern Italy, is said to have discovered this marvelous treasure, is a rich scholar, before whom everyone must bow. His studies on the writings of the Middle Ages are proof of this. There is no one in Italy who does not do justice to the science of Professor di Martino Fusco.

The latest news from Naples informs us:
1° That Professor di Martino, in the tranquility of the island of Capri, is transcribing the code:
2° That the transcription has begun with the second Deca", that is to say from book XI to book XX;
3° That the translator has reached the XVII book;
4° That the code is very difficult to read.

An ancient legend tells that Caligula had ordered the destruction of the forty "Deca" of Titus Livius. What is certain is that the Middle Ages knew only the I, III and IV "deca"

The searches to find the entire work took place in Montecassino, Chartres, Constantinople, but in vain. Will Professor di Martino have had more luck? Everyone wants it.

C. A.-T.