The Etruscans have been a source of fascination from ancient times (the historian Livy and his famous pupil the later emperor Claudius) through the Renaissance, D.H. Lawrence in the last century and down to our own days. They are a people of mystery, although more of that mystery is being revealed both by archaeological investigation and by philological and other scholarship. Where did they come from? Not apparently from Lydia as ancient tradition had it. More likely they were an indigenous people who developed in their own region of Northern and Central Italy in relation to other neighbouring civilisations: Phoenician, Greek and eventually Roman. The other fascination of the Etruscans lies, of course, in their relation with early (and later) Rome, at one time ruled by Etruscan families and where in the time of the emperor Augustus the great patron Maecenas was himself of Etruscan lineage. Take all those aspects together, and add a non‐Indo‐European language undeciphered until comparatively recently, and the fascination becomes ever more obvious.
Etruscan language retains many of its secrets: no Rosetta stone and no significantly long or detailed texts to examine. There are numerous (some 13,000) inscriptions, many of them reproduced as examples in this book, but of a generally limited formulaic nature which does not help understand the grammar and structure of the language. Yet the Etruscans were obviously a very literate people. By various means including comparative philology, scholars are understanding and demonstrating the structure and nature of the language, including its grammar as well as its vocabulary. In the years since your reviewer last studied such matters as an undergraduate great strides have been made.
All is comprehensively yet clearly laid out in this excellent survey. All the latest discoveries and research are synthesised into as clear an account as is possible at this time, and likely to be possible for some time to come, barring extraordinary archaeological or literary discoveries. Given the nature of the subject matter, the book wisely opens with a survey of the historical background, in particular reviewing epigraphical and other matters city by city. Similarly, the opening section on the language itself is introductory, treating the spread of the alphabet and the geographical and chronological range of the Etruscan language, and the sources and methods for its study, in particular the nature and limitations of the bilingual inscriptions. Discussion of the alphabet and pronunciation of Etruscan then lead into as detailed a survey of grammar and vocabulary as modern knowledge and interpretation allow. Nouns, pronouns, numbers, adjectives, verbs, conjunctions and adverbs, syntax and vocabulary; then foreign words in Etruscan, Etruscan words in Latin, the written word, and Etruscan writing – the aftermath. These sections are all clearly labelled and are relatively short, but presenting as much as is known of each aspect, with ranges of examples. The whole approach is factual, with comprehensive reference to sources, both ancient and modern; conjecture is inevitable and essential, but is always clearly signalled as such.
The third section of the book comprises study aids: sample inscriptions (both reproduced as illustrations and transliterated into the Roman alphabet), glosses, names and a comparative word chart. There is an extremely comprehensive bibliography of secondary sources, an index to ancient sources, a concordance and a general index. The illustrations are reproduced either as line drawings or as photographs; in either case they are admirably clear for their purpose.
Since its first publication in 1983 this has become a standard reference on its subject, serving both as a handbook and textbook for students of a range of relevant disciplines, from linguistics to ancient history. Its authors are pre‐eminent scholars in this field and quite simply this new edition becomes at once the standard introduction to and overview of the Etruscan language. It is a specialist item, of course, as dictated by its subject. Yet an enigmatic people and their language become that much more recognisable by this handbook which is likely to attract interest not only in academic collections, but also in other major reference collections also.
