C 635 3 
where they are digging, at prefent, is under 11 Bofco 
di Sanf Agofhno , but a little diflant from the royal 
palace at Portici. Its depth is 1 25 Neapolitan palms*, 
one of which is more than the mercantile canna of 
Rome. All the buildings difeover’d in this fite are 
noble : Many of the pavements are of mofaic, va- 
rioully and finely made ; others are of different- 
colour’d marbles, difpos’d with a beautiful fymmetry ; 
and moft of them are already taken up. In one of 
thefe buildings there has been found an entire library, 
compos’d of volumes of the Egyptian Papyrus, of 
which there have been taken out about 2 yo ; and 
the place is not yet clear’d or emptied, it having been 
deem’d neceffary to eredt props firft, to keep the earth, 
which lies above it, from falling in upon it. Thefe 
volumes of Papyrus confifl of Latin and Greek ma- 
nuferiptsj but from their brittlenefs, occafion’d by 
the fire and time, it is not poffible to unrol them, they 
being now decay’d, and rotten. His majefty how- 
ever has done his part; having fent for a certain 
monk from Rome, who belong’d to the Vatican li- 
brary j in hopes, by his means, to have unfolded 
them ; but hitherto in vain. 
Your fervant Paderni alone can fhew fome frag- 
ments of feveral lines > and more than this, he is much 
afraid, will never be feen. Of thefe there are many 
in my cuftody, which I fuppofe you will have the 
pleafure of obferving, in the intended catalogue. 
There have been found of thofe fmall tables, which 
they cover’d with wax and the palimpfefton , and then 
4 L 2 wrote 
* A Neapolitan palm is faid to be Ilf- inches Englilh. 
