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the fumma cavea. To thefe places they poured in by many 
paflages, to which accefs was had through interior vaults ‘And 
corridors. There was alfo an upper portico, which anfwered 
two purpofes: the one, that the people might have a place of 
fhelter in cafe any fudden ftorm or fhower fhould come on 
during the plays; the other, that the theatre below might be 
preferved from the rain and filth. This portico has eight doors 
before, and as many behind, and oppofite. Seven ftair cafes 
afford an afcent to thefe doors, beginning at the loweft bench 
of the knights next to the orcheftra. The ftair cafes however 
are not interrupted‘and winding as in many amphitheatres, but 
in a ftrait and continued courfe; fo that they make long divi- 
fions like wedges, and form an agreeable coup d’ceil to the 
fpeators from top to bottom. Thefe ftairs were the ways 
between the cunei for afcending, for as the benches were higher 
than a common ftep, and could not be eafily climbed, the ftairs 
were ingenioufly contrived fo as to make a third ftep between 
every ‘two benches, except where the ‘precinétios intervened, 
and in theft there are four. The breadth of thefe ftairs is three 
palms and ‘a half, and the heighth one palm a digit and a 
half; which dimenfion is doubled by that of the feats. Thefe 
flairs were contrived for this purpofe, that the people in the 
cunei might eafily get out whichever way they fhould turn, 
and likewife that thofe who could not get feats might fee the 
performance flanding. There is a difference between the inter- 
nal and external doors; thofe within are fquare and broad, and 
thofe without arched and narrower. The upper portico is twelve 
palms and three-fourths in height, and fifteen and a quarter 
> “ broad, 
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