Etruria
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Etruria. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a district of ancient Italy lying next north of Rome. It was the seat of an early civilization preceding that of the Romans. The Etruscans, as they are called, have left numerous inscriptions, especially on their tombs. Their language appears to have differed from that of the Greek and all other European languages. Their customs and methods of worship are little understood. They buried their dead in subterranean tombs. They were an agricultural people and produced grain, wine, timber, cattle, and wool. They appear to have had dealings with the merchants of the Mediterranean. They worked iron and copper mines and were skilled in the manufacture of articles from these ores. They were proficient workmen in bronze, silver, and gold. They used bronze mirrors and made bronze candlesticks. They were celebrated makers of pottery and ware of the sort known as terra cotta . The Etruscan vases noted for their elegance and beauty are, however, a later production of Grecian art. Some are of terra cotta color with black figures and ornaments. In others the groundwork is colored black, while the figures are of the natural red terra cotta hue. The Etruscans are thought to have taught the Romans the use of the arch; how to dress; how to build amphitheaters; divination; soothsaying, and the making of pottery. Their origin is considered one of the riddles of history. They were a broadheaded people, allied, it has been suggested, to a similar people in Switzerland.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
KINGDOM OF, in Italy, founded by Napoleon I. in 1801. Its capital was Florence. In 1807 Napoleon incorporated it with the French empire.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's called Etruscan origins "one of the riddles of history" and looked to a "broadheaded" people akin to one in Switzerland; skull-shape racial typology has since been abandoned, and ancient DNA studies published in 2021 found Etruscan genomes essentially like those of neighbouring Latins, pointing to local development rather than migration from Asia Minor. The language is still non-Indo-European as the 1910 account says, and still not fully understood, but it can be read aloud in its Greek-derived alphabet, and finds such as the gold Pyrgi tablets, unearthed in 1964 with parallel Etruscan and Phoenician text, gave scholars a bilingual foothold. Aiton's caution that the famous painted "Etruscan vases" are really Greek work has held up well: most are Athenian imports found in Etruscan tombs. The Collier's entry on the short-lived Kingdom of Etruria (1801-1807) needs no correction.
Written for this edition, 2026.