A wooden tabula with handwritten inked text to both faces, pierced to one long edge; to the outer face, written in large decorative lettering "Cod(ex) Testamenti ... Pompo¬ (nii) Speranti " (translation: 'Testamentary codex of Pomponius Sperantius'); to the inner face, a rectangular recess showing traces of a white background (tabula albata) the first eighteen lines of the text of the will, beginning "(1) Post co(n)ss(ulatum) Bas(s)i et Ablavi, pridie idus febr(u)arias. Pomponius Spe¬ (2) rantius subscribens et signaturus sana mente sana memoria testa¬ (3) mentum feci, idque scribendum Iulio Iuliano amico meo dictavi, relectum mihi (4) subscripsi, signavi et signari iussi quatenus lecto valetudinis iaceo " the whole text translating to English as "In the year after the consulate of Bassus and Ablavus, the day before the Ides of February (= Feb. 12th, AD 332). I, Pomponius Sperantius, who signs it and who will seal it, made my last will with clear mind and sane memory; and I dictated to write it down to my friend Iulius Iulianus, and after it was read aloud to me I signed and sealed it, and I ordered it to be signed [by the witnesses]. Insofar I lie down in the sickbed and if something happens suddenly to me, in this case, when I will be given back to the nature by my death, my beloved children Pomponia Iuliana and Feliciana shall be my heirs of all my goods on the land of the fundus Rascotianetis, insofar as they are my own acquired as paternal inheritance and by purchase, and you shall possess it, and in the fundus Goretianos even the houses. And in the same fundus Rascotianos, as it was divided between me and my brother Felicianus, your uncle, through borderlines (¬ ¬ ¬ ¬) and the movable smaller AECORA MAISORA and if you should find out something else (?) through the slave (boy) named Vindelius, then it should be divided in equal parts. All the others shall be disinherited. Whatever I will have given, I will have donated, I will have given as legacy and to whom I will have ordered that it shall be given, you are doomed (?) that it shall be given. It shall be also given PRESTERUMQUE. I give and I authorize my daughter Pomponia Donatilla, if she will marry within the family, land in the fundus Goretianos which I gained from Rogatianus BULEIGOTIS and the slave girl named Victoria, three identical dalmaticas [fine garments] with their mafortium (a kind of cape/wrap to cover head, neck and shoulders) with African (?) stripes (?), a house of bricks (?) with orario (?). I give and I authorize my daughter Tertia ..."

PROVENANCE:
From an important London collection since 1975; acquired by a London dealer 1973; formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, 1965; acquired by Albert in the early 1950s; accompanied by a copy of a witnessed ownership statement from Alain Sfez.

PUBLISHED:
See Münchner Beiträge zur antiken Papyrologie und Rechtsgeschichte, Leopold Wenger Institute (LMU Munich); forthcoming. Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate.

LITERATURE:
For examples of wooden panels used as a writing surfaces, see Thomas, J. D., Vindolanda: The Latin Writing Tablets, Britannia Monograph Series No 4, London, 1983; for examples of testamentary documents on wooden tablets that have survived, see FIRA III, p.47 for Anthony Silvanus from 142 AD and see BGU VII 1695 for Safinnius Herminus; for another from Transfynydd, North Wales, see Arch. Camb. 150, pp.143-156.

FOOTNOTES:
The text of the will is written in the cumbersome formal language of Late Antiquity. The full Latin text reads: "(1) Post co(n)ss(ulatum) Bas(s)i et Ablavi, pridie idus febr(u)arias. Pomponius Spe¬ (2) rantius subscribens et signaturus sana mente sana memoria testa¬ (3) mentum feci, idque scribendum Iulio Iuliano amico meo dictavi, relectum mihi (4) subscripsi, signavi et signari iussi quatenus lecto valetudinis iaceo (5) et ne quibu(s) mihi subitus contingat ut quando quo ego obitum naturae red¬ (6) didero, thunc mihii Pomponii Iulianae et Feliciane filii mei carissi¬ (7) mi ex asse mihi heredes estote in omnium bonorum meorum in agriis fun¬ (8) di Rascotianet(i)s sicut a me possessa sunt quam de paterno quam emtiones (9) possideatis necnon et in fundo Goretianos etiam et domos in eove fundo (10) Rascotianos sicut inter me et Feliciano frater, patruo vestro, divissae sunt TES¬ (11) TRIRI[.]BUS [[ . . . .]] et movilia aecora Massora Minora et si qua alia cognoveritis (12) et puerum nomine Vindelium (a)equis partibus dividatis; ceteri ceteraequae (13) omnes exheredes sunto; quidquid dedero donavero legavero cuique dari (14) iussero dare damnas sunto; detur presterumque; do lego Pomponiae (15) Donatillae filiae mae cum in familia nubere quererit agros in fundo (16) Goretianos comparati mihi de Togatiano BULEIGOTIS et puellam ancillam no¬ (17) mine Victoriam dalmaticarum PARIARTIA cum MASERTIA sua Afro cla¬ (18) vantem latericiam unam cum orario; do lego Tertiae filiae . . . "