Ferdinand Piper, quoting a scholiast on Plato,[47] identifies this Sibyl with the one elsewhere variously called Chaldaean, Babylonian, Egyptian and Hebrew. He tells us further, that tradition called her also the daughter of Berosus, and daughter-in-law of Noah, which raises confusion with the Cuman.[48] He adds, also, that sometimes the name of Sabbe is given to her, and sometimes that of Sambetha. Nothing more is known of this Sibyl; but it is worth noting that the prophecy here attributed to her is the only one that does not deal with the Birth or Atonement of Christ.
She is represented as a pleasant-looking woman of middle age, with her head bound up in a simple veil. In her left hand she carries a book, and with her right she draws attention to a tablet, resting on a carved pedestal, with an inscription as follows:
PANIBVS SOLVM QVINQVE
ET PISCIBVS DVOBVS HO
MINVM MILLIA IN FOENO
QVINQVE SATIABIT RELI
QVIAS TOLLENS XII
COPHINOS IMPLEBIT
IN SPEM MVLTORVM.
(With five loaves and two fishes He will satisfy the hunger of five thousand men on the grass. Taking up the remains, he will fill twelve baskets, for the hope of many.)
Beneath her feet, a label informs us that it is Nicanor who bears record of her. Urbano di Pietro da Cortona, Antonio Federighi, Vito da Marco and Luigi Ruggiero (l’Armellino) received commissions to execute these Sibyls on September 20th, 1481;[49] but Urbano does not appear to have received his payment of 605 lire 12 soldi for the execution of this one, until October, 1483.[50] The sum paid to restore his work was 3,153 lire 84 c.
5. The North Aisle.
The Albunean Sibyl.
This prophetess, as we gather from the label placed beneath her feet, was also styled the Tiburtine Sibyl, because she was “honoured as Divine at Tibur.” From a Christian point of view she is perhaps the best known of all the Sibyls, and the representations of her in art, still extant, are many and very varied in conception.[51] The Emperor Augustus is said to have visited her, and, as a result of her prophecy, erected the altar inscribed “ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI,” now inclosed in the Cappella Santa (or di S. Elena) of the Church of Sta. Maria Aracoeli in Rome.
She is here represented as a tall and youngish woman, with a curious pointed head-dress. In her right hand she carries an open book; while above her left shoulder, and attached by a ribbon to the neck of a small cherub, is a tablet on which are the words:
NASCETVR CHRISTVS
IN BETHLEHEM ANNVN
CIABITVR IN NAZARETH
REGNANTE TAVRO PACI
FICO FUNDATORE QVIE
TIS. O FELIX MATER CV
IVSVBERA ILLVM LACTA
BVNT