VOL, XL.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 249 



have been to mark earthen vessels, particularly those great earthen jars, in which 

 the Romans used to keep their wines. It any of them had occurred to him 

 with the letters excisae, exsculptae, protuberant or standing out, as the types 

 in our modern way of printing are made, so accurate a describer of antiquities 

 could not have passed it over without having mentioned it, and that the rather 

 because of its being a greater rarity : though several lamps of terra cocta are 

 stamped with letters impressed or hollow, from such protuberant letters as in 

 fig. 2, pi. 7, but the greater number have the letters raised, or standing out. 



This stamp is made of the true antient brass, and is covered over with a 

 green scale or coat, such as is usually seen on antient medals. It was found in 

 or near Rome. On the back is fastened a ring, the hole of which is ^i of an 

 English inch one way, and ■!-§■ the other way ; the plate itself is two inches 

 long, wanting -^, and its breadth exactly 44 of an inch : the sides are parallel 

 to one another, and the ends are likewise parallel to each other, but they are 

 not on an exact square with the sides, varying about 1 degree and a half from 

 an exact rectangle. On the under side stand two lines or rows of letters, ^ of 

 an inch in height, and well-formed Roman capitals: their faces stand up, all 

 upon an exact level with one another, and with the edge or border of the 

 stamp ; their protuberance or height above the ground is different, the ground 

 being cut uneven ; for close to most of the letters the ground is cut away only 

 ^V> close to some near -^, and close to the edges full -^. The first line con- 

 tains these letters, CICAECILI / , with a stop or leaf to fill up the line; in 

 the second line, HERMIAE. SN. Which is judged to be read Caii iulii 

 Caecili, Hermiae Signum. Who was probably a man in a private station, so 

 that his name has not been handed down to us in any monuments, but only 

 accidentally in this stamp. In Gruter occur two of the name of Hermias, and 

 several of the Caecilii, but none with these two names joined together. 



The use of this stamp seems to have been for the signature of the above- 

 mentioned private man, to save him the trouble of writing his name, as some 

 people have at present. It was certainly used on paper or membranes, being 

 first dipped into ink, or some sort of paint, because of the protuberance of the 

 letters, the hollow letters being fitter for soft substances, on which they leave 

 the impression standing up, and consequently more legible. Another argu- 

 ment, that this stamp was not to be used on any soft substance into which it 

 might be pressed quite down to the ground, is the unevenness and roughness 

 with which the ground is finished, which, was it to have made part of the im- 

 pression, the workman would have finished with more accuracy; but he, know- 

 ing that the surface of the letters was to perform the whole work required, was 

 only attentive to finish them with that accurate evenness that these have. 



VOL. vni. K K 



