ITALY. LETTER XVI. 2 19 



\vith. They are truely antique, as being every 

 day dug out of the ruins of old Roman buildings. 

 I have not at hand the catalogue of Produzzioni 

 natural^ che Ji rilrovano nel Mufeo Ginanni in Ra- 

 usnna. Lucca, 1762. 4 to. wherein many antique 

 and modern marbles have been defcribed : I have 

 not 1? Argwuillt s OryBograpbia ; therefore 1 defire 

 you to compare their lifts with mine, fmce I 

 may have dipt fome varieties. Elofius Caryophilus 

 de antiquis marmoribus, Viennae, 1738, 4to. is a 

 valuable learned performance ; but hardly any of 

 its defcriptions are to be traced out, as the ancient 

 denominations of the daffies are entirely different 

 from the modern ones. They commonly employ 

 at Rome much Broccatelk di Spcgna, French and 

 Flanders marbles, and Florentine marble-, which, 

 on account of its landfcape figures, is' called Mar- 

 mo pae'fino. Dendritical "marble is called Alberino, 

 commonly fet in Mofaic-tabks. Petrified corals, 

 lithophytes, and madrepores, employed to the 

 fame purpofe and in fnuff-boxes, are called pietre 

 ftsllarie. But generally thefe denominations are in- 

 dependent of any rule, occafioned only by the 

 fancy of the artifts and journeymen, which often 

 is very capricious and whimfical ; fome, for exam- 

 ple, called a red, yellow, and brown variegated 

 Sicilian marble, Diafpro moderno di Sitilia, though 

 on account of hardnefs, colour, and nature, en- 

 tirely 



