[ 6o 3 ] 
for the former of thefe purpofes ; as it is well known, 
that glafs was not applied to the latter, in optical 
ufes, till the beginning of the XHIth century (7). 
However, we may with greater probability pio- 
pofe another ufe, for which the ancients might em- 
ploy fuch plates of glafs, as are now under confide- 
ration, viz. the adorning the walls of their apart- 
ments by way of wainfcot. This I take to be the 
meaning of the vitrece camera mentioned by Pliny (8); 
who intimates, that this fafhion took its rife fiom 
glafs being ufed by M. Scaurus (9) for embellifhing 
the fcene of that magnificent theatre, which he eredted 
for exhibiting fhows to the Roman people in his aedile- 
fhip (10). And we may collect from the fame au- 
thor ( 1 1) (what is further confirmed by his contem- 
porary (12) Seneca), that this kind of ornament had 
Invenio medicos , qua funt urenda corporum y non atitir utilius id 
fieri putare, quam cryfiallina pild adverfis pofiita folis radiis. Pirn. 
Nat. Hift. lib. xxxvii. c. 6 . §. 10. 
(7) Vid. Monf. Renaudot Memoires de 1 Acad, des lnicript. 
tom. I. 
(8) Vid. infra, not. 11. 
Tbeatrum Scciuri — — fie e 'id ei triplex in altitudinem cc*-LX 
columnarum. Ima pars ficen a e marmore fiuit : media e vitro : 
fumma e tabidis inauratis. Nat. Hift. lib. xxxvi. c. 15. 
(10) A. V. 678. Hard. not. Piin. lib. xxxvi. c. 8. 
(11) Agrippa in tberrnis , quas Roma fecit , figlinum opus cncaujU 
pinxit , in reliquis albai ia adornavit : non dubie vitreas fa&urus ca- 
meras, ft prius inver.tum id fuiflet, aut a parictibus ficcna— Scauri 
pervenijfiet in cameras. Lib. xxxvi. c. 25. §. 64. 
(12) Seneca, expoftng the luxury of the Romans with regard to 
their baths, fays. Pauper fibi videtur ae fiordidus , nifi parietes 
magnis ac pretiofis orbibus refulferint — nifi vitro abfeonditur ca- 
mera. — Ep. 86. 
4H 2 
been 
