368 DOMAIN ir. TALCOUS. 



A recent French author gives the following 

 account of the verde-antico; but he is certainly 

 mistaken when he regards it as a bricia. 



" The verde-antico should be considered as a 

 kind of bricia, the paste of which is a mixture of 

 talc and limestone, and the fragments, of a 

 greenish black, are owing to serpentine more or 

 less pure. This marble is an aggregate of white 

 marble and green serpentine, reduced to angular 

 pieces, or blended in its paste, and giving to it a 

 green colour, more or less deep. 



" The verde-antico marble of the finest quality 

 is that of which the paste is of a grass green* 

 and the black spots are of serpentine, of that 

 sort called noble serpentine. It should also be 

 sprinkled with white spots, which renders it 

 more gay than when they are wanting. 



" This marble is much esteemed in commerce, 

 but lar^e pieces of a fine quality are seldom 

 found. Nevertheless there are four beautiful 

 columns in the Hall of Laocoon, in the Napo- 

 leon Museum ; but there are much finer ones at 

 Parma. 



" It was known by the ancients under the 

 name of Spartanu?n, or Lacedtemonium ; and we 



ophilus (Biagio Garofalo) De Marmorilus Antiquis. Traj. 1743, 

 4to. Some extracts may be found in the Appendix. See also the 

 account of the ancient marbles in Domain V. 



