Transcriber’s Note:
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Additional notes are at the end of the book.
THE
AND
Their Testimony Relative to Primitive Christianity.
BY THE REV.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXXVIII.
Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld. Printers, London and Aylesbury.
The present work, it is hoped, will supply a want long felt in theliterature of the Catacombs. That literature, it is true, is veryvoluminous; but it is for the most part locked up in rare and costlyfolios in foreign languages, and inaccessible to the general reader.Recent discoveries have refuted some of the theories and correctedmany of the statements of previous books in English on this subject;and the present volume is the only one in which the latest results ofexploration are fully given, and interpreted from a Protestant pointof view.
The writer has endeavored to illustrate the subject by frequent pagansepulchral inscriptions, and by citations from the writings of theFathers, which often throw much light on the condition of earlyChristian society. The value of the work is greatly enhanced, it isthought, by the addition of many hundreds of early Christianinscriptions carefully translated, a very large proportion of whichhave never before appeared in English. Those only who have given someattention to epigraphical studies can conceive the difficulty of thispart of the work. The defacements of time, and frequently the originalimperfection of the inscriptions and the ignorance of their writers,[Pg 6]demand the utmost carefulness to avoid errors of interpretation. Thewriter has been fortunate in being assisted by the veteran scholarshipof the Rev. Dr. McCaul, well known in both Europe and America as oneof the highest living authorities in epigraphical science, under whosecritical revision most of the translations have passed. Through theenterprise of the publishers this work is more copiously illustrated,from original and other sources, than any other work on the subject inthe language; thus giving more correct and vivid impressions of theunfamiliar scenes and objects delineated than is possible by any mereverbal description. References are given, in the foot-notes, to theprincipal authorities quoted, but specific acknowledgment should herebe made of the author’s indebtedness to