VLTIMA CVMAEI VENIT IAM
CARMINIS AETAS MAGNUS
ABINTEGRO SAECLORVM
NASCITVR ORDO IAM RE
DIT ET VIRGO, REDEVNT
SATVRNIA REGNA, IAM
NOVA PROGENIES CAELO
DEMITTITVR ALTO
(Now has come the last period of Cumaean song,
A great order of the ages is born afresh.
The Virgin now returns; the kingdoms of Saturn return.
Now a new progeny is sent down from lofty Heaven.)
Her label bears the words “Sibilla Cumana meminit Virgilius. Eclog. IV.”
This figure is the work of Giovanni di Maestro Stefano di Giovanni and his scholars, and was executed by him in 1482.[45] He received for it the sum of 697 lire, 9 soldi and 2 c. It was restored at the same time as the other Sibyls, in 1866–69, at a cost of 2,743 lire 6 c.
The Erythraean Sibyl.
This Sibyl, as we have already seen, is one of those named in the earliest lists by Pausanias. She is said to have been a native of Marpessus or Erythrae in the Troad, and he, as well as some other writers, gives her the name of Herophile; one authority however speaks of a Trojan Sibyl, whom he calls Herophila, and names the Erythraean one, Symmachia. She lived, as we have said before when writing of the Delphic Sibyl, chiefly at Samos, but visited Clarus, Delos and Delphi. This would, no doubt, account for the difficulty in distinguishing the various place-names attached to these different women. As we have also seen above, the Sibylline books are said to have been once preserved at Erythrae, and Lactantius attributes to her the famous acrostic which announces the Coming of the Anointed One, Son of God Himself, as Saviour of the World. Here she is depicted as a tall patrician lady, with a rather forbidding countenance, and a very curious head-dress, which partially envelops her face. Her right hand clasps a closed volume, while the left rests on an open book, supported by a carved lectern. On the pages of this book are written the following words:
| DE EXCELSO | ET NASCETVR |
| CAELORVM HA | IN DIEBVS NO |
| BITACVLO PRO | VISSIMIS DE VIR |
| SPEXIT DOMI | GINE HEBRAEA |
| NVS HVMILES | IN CVNABVLIS |
| SVOS | TERRAE |
(From the High Habitation of Heaven God has looked down on His humble (servants), and shall be born in these most recent days of a Hebrew Virgin in the cradle of the earth.)
Beside her on a stool is a tablet, telling us that this is the Erythraean Sibyl, whom Apollodorus claimed as his fellow citizen. This Sibyl was designed and executed by Antonio Federighi in 1482; and we are told that he received 649 lire 17 soldi for it.[46] It is interesting to note that this and the Samian are the only Sibyls signed by their designers. Federighi’s evident taste for faithful representation of the costumes of his period, apparent also in his other works, would account for the rather bizarre head-dress above referred to. The cost of restoration of this Sibyl was 2,043 lire 13 c.