Testamentum Porcelli: a pig's last will
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 33). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Plausible
Date or witness: 4th century CE; popular recitation explicitly attested by Jerome in 408–410 CE
Region: Latin-speaking Roman world
Workbook date-sort bounds: 300 CE to 410 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
A piglet about to be slaughtered delivers a mock will. Jerome complains that laughing groups of schoolboys repeat it, providing unusually direct evidence of contemporary circulation.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Jerome explicitly attests groups of schoolboys repeatedly reciting the pig testament around 408–410 CE: contemporary social uptake, not merely surviving manuscripts.
What remains uncertain
Schoolboy recitation is direct evidence, but their social composition and whether the choice was voluntary or instructional are not secure. It is not proof of worker transmission.
Candidate-index family 18: Testamentum Porcelli: a pig's last will
The workbook groups records 33 here and rates the family Plausible. This is a research shortlist, not proof of an independently established meme family.
Dated evidence: 4th century CE; popular recitation explicitly attested by Jerome in 408–410 CE
Region: Latin-speaking Roman world
Shortlist uncertainty: Schoolboy recitation is direct evidence, but their social composition and whether the choice was voluntary or instructional are not secure. It is not proof of worker transmission.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria