Cod. Florence Bibl. Nazion. Centr. Conv. Soppr. J.VI.34—formerly in Niccolò Niccoli's and St. Mark's libraries—written in a beautiful French hand of c. A.D. 1150–1200—contains the second edition of Boethius's translation of Pr. An. Many scholia, written on the margins and between the lines by the same calligraphic hand which wrote the Aristotelian text or by a hand very similar to and contemporary with it, accompany the translation in this MS. They are mainly concentrated in about one-half of the work, viz. in book i.23–30 (4ob–46a) and book ii (52a–70b); quite a few accompany i. 1, 5–6, 30–45 (24a, 27b–28a, 46a–50a); almost none is to be found in i. 10–14, 17–22 (30b7–33b25, 37a25–40b10). Arrangement and writing suggest that the scribe intended to give the reader Aristotle's text together with what was available to him of an authoritative commentary.

The scholia range, in nature and extent, from short glosses on single words or phrases and short summaries of sections of Aristotle's work to detailed explanations and doctrinal developments of important or difficult passages. Here and there carefully drawn diagrams illustrate logical rules and geometrical examples. The following scholia are mainly chosen from book i; others, from both books, will be given farther on.

In the British Museum there are two fifth-century Attic vases (Nos. D 9 and D 10) of bee-hive shape (Fig. 1), of which the decoration consists of a series of mouldings alternately red, white, and black, with a black rim; the interior is white, also with a black rim. In their general style, their technique, and their decoration they are very similar to another vase of the same collection, D 8, a phiale mesomphalos, which bears the signature of the potter Sotades. All three vases were in the Branteghem Collection, and were described by Froehner, in his Catalogue of that Collection, under Nos. 160–162.

In the third volume of the Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum I described these vases, D 9 and D 10, as ‘Mastoi’; this is a form which, of course, owes its name to the pretty fancy which derives it from the model of Aphrodite's breast, and so was a favourite form of dedication in her temple at Paphos.

In the Journal of Hellenic Studies, xli. (1921), pp. 70–85, Mr. Webb has written a merry paper, dealing with a paper on Cleostratus which I contributed to the same Journal, xxxix. (1919), pp. 164–184. After reading Mr. Webb's paper, I saw at once that my theory as to the meaning of the word ‘prima’ in Pliny, Nat. Hist., ii. 8(6), 30, and the word πρῶτα in the phrase πρῶτα σημεῖα in Cleostratus was no longer tenable. But, while withdrawing my own views on the subject, I am unfortunately unable to adopt Mr. Webb's. On all other points of importance I adhere to the opinions expressed in my paper.

The question of widest interest on which we differ is that of the source from which Cleostratus derived the zodiacal signs and the octaeteris. In my opinion Babylon was the source in both cases. Mr. Webb differs from me on both points.

That our signs of the zodiac were in common use in Babylon long before the time of Cleostratus is beyond question. Dr. Langdon has drawn my attention to several Babylonian and Assyrian lists of these signs. Of these, the one that corresponds most closely with our list is certainly not later than the eighth century before Christ. It is found on an Ashur text, and, although the extant copy belongs to the Persian period, an imperfect duplicate which belonged to the library of Ashur-bani-pal proves its antiquity. The list runs as follows:—Bull of heaven, Twins, Crab, Lion, Ear of Corn, Scales, Scorpion, Archer, Goat-fish, Waterman, Canal, Hireling. Pisces, here represented as a Canal, is in many other texts the Fish constellation.

In the autumn of 1929, through the kindness of Professor Giuseppe Lugli, I was able to study the Castellani vase-fragments in the Villa Giulia at Rome. I had never seen them before, and I was much surprised to find that some of them came from the same vases as fragments in another collection, the Campana collection in the Archaeological Museum at Florence. Surprised, because I had never heard of any connection between Campana and Castellani. I afterwards learned from Dr. Minto that after the fall of Campana the residue of his collection long lay sequestered in the Monte di Pietà at Rome: it was eventually bought by Gamurrini for the museum of Florence; but meanwhile Alessandro Castellani, or some agent of his, must have had access to it.

The Ashmolean Museum has recently acquired three. Attic vases with subjects of uncommon interest. The first (Pl. XXX.) is a b.-f. pelike with framed pictures. Each picture is bounded by a band of ordinary lotus-bud-pattern above, at the sides by net-pattern, and below by a clay line. A red band runs right round the vase immediately below the pictures, and a thinner red line, as is usual in panel-amphorae, surrounds the neck at the level of the handles. Red is also used for the beards and wreaths on side A, and on B for the beards, the front hair of 1 and 2, and patch on the goat's neck, the brim of 3's hat and the curved parts of his boots: white for the block and the joints of the folding-stool on A, and on B for the lines on the rock (which has also incised markings), and the chiton of 3 and the crown of his hat. The height of the vase is 40·6 cm., the width at the widest part 29·4 cm. and at the rim 18·4 cm.

The vase which is the subject of Plate IV was recently presented to the British Museum by Mr. John Tulk of Chertsey, in whose possession it had been for many years. Mr. Tulk states that it was formerly in the possession of Earl Cadogan, and was disposed of at the sale of his antiquities at Christie's in 1865. On the rim of the vase is an impression in red wax of a seal with coat-of-arms. Enough remains of the surrounding inscription (DO · I … RE · SICIL) to show that it is the seal of Ferdinando I, King of the Two Sicilies 1815–25, with the arms of the Kingdom. Either the vase was originally in the possession of this personage, or else it is merely a confirmation of leave to export the vase from Italy. But I can glean no further information about its previous history, and it appears to have remained entirely unknown to archaeologists. It is, however, as will be seen, one of more than usual interest.

There is a small group of reliefs from late Etruscan urns which are identified as representations of the Gaulish raid upon the sanctuary of Delphi in 279 B.C. The reliefs vary a good deal in detail and no general type for the subject can be traced, but but the narrow shape indicates Volterra; the material is tufa (Fig. 1).