Testamentum Porcelli
“The last will of a little pig.” The title of a
jeu
d'esprit in Latin written before the fourth century A.D. and found in a MS. of the ninth
century. It purports to be the will of a young pig who is about to be killed by the cook and
who formally bequeathes the parts of his body to his friends and relatives. The document is
attested in due form by seven pigs. It is evidently intended for children, for it has the real
nursery ring, though some have supposed it to be written as a burlesque of legal forms. St.
Jerome (
Comment. in Is. xii. init.) says that it was repeated by boys at school
exhibitions as an amusing bit of fun. It is edited with Latin notes by Moritz Haupt in his
Opuscula (ii. 178 foll.), and with English notes by H. T. Peck in Peck and
Arrowsmith's
Roman Life in Latin Prose and Verse (New York, 1894).
Bücheler prints the text in his smaller edition of Petronius
(Berlin,
1882).
