HERCULANEUM. 
aii appears on a picture. No musical instruments were found in front, at ono end of the roll, exposing the name of the Merculs- 
but the sistram, which we imperfectly understand, cym- work, or the author, as it occupied ite place in the li. "eum. 
bals, and flutes of’ bone or ivory are yet obtained. How- . But the substance of involutiens waa so ~V~ 
748 
ever, a coheert iste on a picture 1 6inches crushed together, the ink of pigment employed for the °° ™* 
containing a lyrist, a player on a double flute, probably character had faded to such.n degree, then uaial tothe == 
by.a mouth piece, and a:female apparently singing from 
‘a leaf of music; besides. other two figures. Several 
theatrical masks, of different fashions, were found in 
clay and metal, along with moulds for their formation. 
Their use in dramatic representations, ing which 
the reader may consult a work by Ficoront,is well known, 
and is the subject of many of the pictures. The theatre, 
we ty was a favourite resort of the ancients; and 
some ivory tickets of admission, with the author's name, 
eserved from Herculaneum. 
and ‘that of ‘the piece, are 
dancing is exhibited on the pictures, wherein ‘all 
the modern dexterity of playing on imusical instruments, 
pouring out liquids into cups, and other feats of address 
are shewn. |The most elegant avd. of the 
Herculaneum pictures are perhaps female dancers sus- 
pendedias it were among the clouds. 
It is to beiobserved in general, with regard to the 
numerous ‘aiticles relative to this brief detail, _ the 
quality of the statues infinitely surpasses that of the pic- 
pag that. the vases, tripods, lamps, and candela- 
bra, are frequently of the finest workmanship. Of ma- 
ny once complete, only fragments at) this day remain ; 
and while gold, silver, bronze, or clay remain entire, 
iron: has © wasted away. bods 
. After avast collection of antiquities had been made, 
the king resolved on publishing a laborious and expen 
sive work, Containing engravings of those which ap- 
“most curious. In the course of thirty-eight 
years, from 1754 to 1792, this was accomplished i 
nine folio volumes,-including the pictures, bronzes, 
lamps, and candelabra: The first is devoted to a cata+ 
logue, five to pictures; two to the bronzes, and! one 
to the lucerne. No less than 738 pictures are named 
inthe catalogue, and the other articles are proportion« 
ally numerous. ~The work was, with royal munificence, 
presented to the principal public libraries in. Europe; 
but, owing to the succession of the king of the Sicilies 
to the crown of Spain, it is seldom to be seen complete. 
At the same time, it has been affirmed, that some of the 
ravings of the pictures appear with a perfection and 
‘defeengy. erhich do not belong to the originals, although 
their character be not lost. 
pieces 
of charcoal were carried off, which, by accidental frac- 
ture, exposed the remains of letters, and proved so ma» 
ancient manuscri Here Camillo Paderni, the 
‘Keeper of the museum, buried himself during twelve 
days, and succeeded in carrying away $37 manuscripts; 
and, by subsequent careful research, the total number 
recovered now exceeds 1800. They were in various 
stages of +3. some so much disfigured and oblite- 
rated, that nothing could be determined regarding their 
nature from the beginning. However, the king insti~ 
tuted a society for yon ea) them completely. High 
expectations were formed by the European literati, of 
the knowledge which would be acquired respecting the 
history, the manners, and the customs of antiquity ; more 
especially as the materials themselves. indubitably re- 
mounted to a period of more than 1600 years, The 
manuscripts consisted of rolls, scarcely a span in length, 
and two or three inches in thickness, formed of pieces 
of Egyptian papyrus glued together. Some had.a label 
4 8 = - + 
general injury which they had received: from time, and 
the heat to which they had been exposed, the opening of 
them seemed at first sight to be impracticable. Ac- 
coring}: some snappeil asunder like ‘burnt wood, 
others flew into fragments, or they exposed nothing. 
The assistance of Piaggi, a monk, was obtained fram 
the Vatican, who invented an ingenious method of un- 
folding the manuscripts without destruction, by means 
of a mechanical apparatus: The process was slow, but Process of 
tolerably certain ; and the first manuscript pat on the unfolding 
machine, being»unrolled in the year 1751, proved to be them, 
a treatise in Greek capitals, written by Philodemus, an 
Epicurean: philosopher, agairst music, with his name 
twice inscribed at the end, or interior of the roll. Si- 
milar means were adopted with other manuscripts, aud 
they were partly successful. Alrmost the whole manu- 
scripts are in Greek, very few having hitherto been 
found in Latin; and some of the rolls are forty or fifty 
feet in length. The entire surface of the roll is divi- 
ded into successive columns, resembling our ordinary 
ges, each containing from forty to seventy lines in 
fferent, manuscripts, this being dependent on the size 
of the roll ; but each line is only about twe inches long, 
and the column is no broader. In the original state, 
therefore, the reader held. the roll before his eyes with 
one ‘hand, while he unwound it with the other; as is 
represented by some of the Herculanean pictures. Un- 
common difficulties were experienced, from the decay 
of the substance, from frequent blanks and obliterations 
within, and from the absence of punctuation. Four yvo- 
lumes, jall by, Philodemus, were successively unrolled ; 
and, in 1760, Piaggi reached a fifth by another author, on 
botany. But:the king was induced to order it to be 
withdrawn, and a sixth volume was put on the ma- 
chine, ‘where it remainedsthirty-six years. After twen- 
ty years preparation, the work on. music was published, 
with illustrations by Mazzocchi, a léarned Italian, un- 
der the title Herculanensium toluminum qué supersunt, 
tomus 1. Napoli, 1793.» It must have been anxicty for 
publication, not the desire of enlightening the world, 
that; led to the selection of this volume, reputed a dull 
and controversial performance, which the most inge- 
nious commentary is incapable of enlivening. Cicero, 
notwithstanding, has called the author op/imum et doc- 
tisstmum ; Piso, the supposed owner of the manuscripts, 
derived his philosophy from him, and he was well skilled 
in the polite literature of theperiod. Inthe course of forty 
years from the discovery of the manuscripts, which were 
gradually withdrawn, only eighteen were unfolded. 
The accession of Charles, indeed, to the crown of Spain, 
and the death of Mazzocchi, had enervated the Hereu- 
lanean Society; which was renewed in 1787 by the 
Marquis Caracioli, and the secretary of state theacefor~ 
ward placed at its head. Yet the work advanced very 
tardily; few persons were employed, either from the 
difficulty or want of interest in its prosecution; and 
it was perhaps, totally interrupted by the political 
events which disturbed the peace of Europe. Mean 
time, six of the manuscripts were ent along with 
other Herculaneum curiosities, to Bonaparte in 1802, by 
the sovereign of the Sicilies, in whose reign, s 
we believe that both Philodemus and the volume of 
Lucerne were published ; and ten volumes are said to 
