NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@alpha.nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

7/24/2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES - Thirty years ago, Dr. Jean D'Amato Thomas discovered a 14th-century manuscript while doing research. That manuscript led to a paper which Thomas, a professor of classics in the Louisiana Scholars' College at Northwestern State University, delivered at a recent international conference in Italy.

The paper, "Parma Biblioteca Palatina, Fondo Palatino 236. A Scarcely Recognized Fourteenth-century Manuscript of Peter of Eboli's De Balneris Terre Laboris," was presented at a symposium "Balneology and the Art of Healing in Antiquity." Thomas also chaired a session, "Excursion to Castello di Baia," during the conference. The symposium was held at the Villa Viergiliana, Cuma/Baia in Naples, Italy. Sponsors of the conference were the Vergilian Society, Brandeis University and the Department of Classics and the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona.

Thomas said she has previously mentioned the manuscript in publications about
other material. Now, Thomas has examined the manuscript with the attention it deserves and hopes to include the study in her book-length study of antiquarian activity in the Phlegraean Fields."

While in Italy, Thomas also conducted research and attended meetings in Parma, Pisa and Rome.

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