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LETTER II. 
Rome, Nov. 5. 1757. 
D URING my fummer recefs at Viterbo, as I was 
tracing out the remains of antiquity in the ad- 
jacent country, I dropt, by mere accident, upon the 
ruins of Ferentum, a town of Etruria, different from 
that of the fame name in Latium, near Mons Alba- 
nus. Here, belides the w r alls of the city, confifting 
of wrought fqure ftone, I had the fatisfa&ion of find- 
ing a temple built of the fame materials, of neat 
workmanfhip, and a very elegant ftile of architedlure : 
but what furprifed me more was a theatre almoft per- 
fect, not only in the circular part of it, but alfo in 
that, which was taken up by the feene or Rage. It 
had its porticos intire on the outfide, and likewiie 
three entrances, anfwering to the vulva regia, and 
the hofpitalia , deferibed by * Vitruvius : fo that no- 
thing was wanting to render it complete, but the 
orchejlra and pulpitum. Thefe remains are accef- 
fible to all the world ; yet no one hitherto has deli- 
neated or publifhed them. We have feveral valuable 
monuments in Latium, Sabina, Etruria, Campania, 
* The learned abbate refers here (I prefume) to Vitruv. de 
archit. 1 . v. c 6. (Cunei) qui funt in imo, et dirigunt fealaria, 
erunt numero feptem ; reliqui quinque feenas defignabunt compofiti- 
onem, et unus medius contra fe valvas regias habere debet, et qui 
erunt dextra ac finiftra hofpitalium defignabunt compofitionem. 
Ipfae feenae fuas habeant rationes explicatas, ita uti mediae valvas 
ornatus habeant aulse regiae, dextra ac finiftra hofpitalia. Ib. c. 7. 
For a fuller account of thefe entrances imo the ancient theatres, 
vid. Montfauc. Antiq explic. Tom. III. Par. II. 1 . ii. cap. 2, 3, 
& 4. 
D d 2 
and 
