ARUNDEL MARBLES. The inscribed mar bles in the collection of ancient sculptures and antiquities formed about the beginning of the Seventeenth Century by Thomas Howard. Earl of Arundel, and presented in 1667 to the University of Oxford, by his grandson, Henry Howard, after wards Duke of Norfolk. The collection was formed for the Earl largely through the purchases of Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Petty, who traveled in Italy. Greece, and Asia Minor for this purpose. The most important inscription is the Parian Chronicle,' a slab of marble containing a large part of a' chronicle of events in Greek (chiefly Athenian) history. It originally ex tended from the reign of Cecrops,herereckoned as P.c. 1582, to P.c. 264, but the Arundel copy breaks off at n.c. 355. In 1897 another fragment, cov ering the period from a.c. 336 to B.C. 290 was found on faros. The unknown writer not only gives the Athenian archon in whose term the events recorded took place, but also the number of years before R.C., 264. This inscription, with
others of the collection, was first published in Marmora Arundelliana, by John Belden (16281, later in .liarmora aroniensia by Prideaux (Ox ford. 1676). Chandler (Oxford, 1763), and Rob erts (Oxford, 17911. The best edition is that of Boeckh, with full Latin commentary. in Corpus Inseriptionum (I•a•earum 1828-77 ) . The new fragment is published in Mittellungen ties kaiserlielt deutsehen. urehriologisehro Instttuts, A thcaisdu. Abteiluny, Vol. XXIV. (Berlin, 1897).
The nobleman whose name is associated with these ancient marbles is worthy of remembrance, independently of his general merits. as the first of his order in England who liberally encouraged the fine arts, and communicated the influence of his own taste and enthusiasm in their cultivation to a wide circle of imitators and successors.