182 Herciilcmeum Manuscripts. 



formed by a single person, with a single frame only, under 

 the direction of ihe marquis del Vasto, chamberlain to the 

 king, and president of the royal academy. 



" The frame consists of several taper and oblong pieces 

 of wood, with parallel threads of silk that run on each side, 

 the length of each piece: when the frame is laid on any 

 volume, each piece of wood must be fixed precisely over 

 each line of the page, while the respective threads being 

 worked beneath each line, and assisted by the corresponding 

 piece of wood above, raise the line upwards, and disclose 

 the characters to view *. 



'^ The operation seems ingenious, and well adapted to 

 the purpose : it was, I believe, invented by a capuchin at 

 Naples. The fruits of it are said to be two publications 

 only; one on music, by the celebrated Philodcmus, who 

 was a cotemporary of Cicero ; and the other on cookery. 

 The first is in his majestv's library, at the queen's palace. 

 Through the obliging politeness of Mr. Barnard, the king's 

 librarian, I have had the advantage of perusing it. Indeed, 

 I hope your royal highness will not disapprove my acknow- 

 ledging in this plac the very warm and respectful interest 

 which both this gentleman and the right honourable the 

 president t of the Royal Society have expressed for the 

 furtherance of your royal highness's great and good design. 

 Meanwhile, by this specimen of Philodcmus, I am con- 

 vinced that, if the frames should be multiplied to the pro- 

 posed extent, several pages of thirty difi'erent manuscripts 

 might be disclosed and transcribed within the space of one 

 week. 



*' But the very period at which the manuscripts were 

 buried, serves to point out to your royal highness that you 

 may expect the recovery of either the whole, or at least 

 pfirts, of the best writers in antiquity, hitherto deemed ir-^ 

 recoverable. All of these, in truth, had w ritten before that 



* From the want of information in this country, I am apprehensive 

 that this description of the frame is rathtr depictive. But, wlu-n I am 

 on the spot, I shall not fail to transmit, for your royal highness's inspec- 

 tion, an exact model of its mechanism, I am equally apprehensive ihat 

 the same cause m^y have occasioned more errors in this part of my ac- 

 count : the same local advantage, of which I shall be careful to make 

 the earliest use, will enable me to remove them. 



f It was suggested by Sir Joseph Banks, that, f om the nature of the 

 antient atrariientum, which perhaps was not so much an ink as a paint, 

 and from the m-'.terial of these m.muscripts, there may be derived a chance 

 of applying a chemical process to this development of the cinders with 

 increased expedition and effect. The suggestion is of the first import- 

 ance : hereafter there may be an opportunity of ascertaining its utility by 

 experiment. 



3 period^ 



