Antiquities, &c. R O 
with ancient mirrors, and its roof is adorned with the events 
of history and mythology. This cabinet communicates by 
an open gallery with the Stanze delle Buste on one. side, and 
the hall of animals on the other. Through a noble pillared 
vestibule we now enter the temple of the Muses, an octagon 
supported by sixteen pillars of Carrara marble with ancient 
capitals, and paved with ancient mosaics. Next to the tem¬ 
ple of the Muses is the Sala Rotonda, a lofty dome, sup¬ 
ported by ten columns of Carrara marble, paved with the 
largest mosaics yet found. In the middle is a vase of por¬ 
phyry, fifty feet in circumference, or forty-two, according 
to a late author. This hall is appropriated to colossal 
statues, among which are Ceres, Juno, Lanuvina, Hadrian, 
Antinous, Jupiter, Jupiter Serapis, and Ocean. From the 
Rotonda, which is reckoned the finest hall in the museum, 
a rich portal leads to the Sala a Croce Greca, supported by 
columns, and paved w’ith an ancient mosaic brought from 
Cicero’s villa. Here is a vast sarcophagus, formed with its 
lid of one block of red porphyry, adorned in basso-relievo 
with little cupids. This once contained the ashes of Con¬ 
stant ia, the daughter of Constantine. 
This last hall opens on a double staircase raised on twenty- 
two pillars of red and white granite, with marble steps and 
a bronze ballustrade. The middle flight leads to the Vatican 
library, the other two to the gallery of Candelabra, a long 
gallery of six compartments, separated by columns of rich 
marble. This gallery contains various candelabra with vases 
and other objects of antiquity. At the end of this long suite 
of apartments a door opens into the Galleria de Quadri, 
containing a collection of pictures by the Italian masters. 
On the left, before descending the above-mentioned staircase, 
there is a beautiful little circular temple of marble, called the 
Stanze della Biga, from the biga or triumphal car of richly 
sculptured marble which stands in the centre, drawn by two 
fiery steeds of bronze. It is adorned by four bas-reliefs, a 
statue of an auriga, and a fine discobolus Besides these galle¬ 
ries, there is the long geographical gallery, with maps of the 
Italian mountains and rivers on its walls, and the tapestry 
chambers hung with tapestry woven in Flanders, and copied 
from the cartoons of Raphael. 
Among the other objects of public interest at Rome, is 
the museum of the Capitol, consisting of splendid halls 
and galleries, filled with the treasures of ancient sculpture, 
which it is impossible here to enumerate, far less to describe. 
The museum of paintings in the Capitol is contained in the 
opposite Palazzo di Conservatori, in which there are like¬ 
wise many objects of antiquity. The paintings are coarse, 
and inferior in interest to the sculptures in the other' museum. 
The Doria palace has three vast fronts; the staircase, sup¬ 
ported by pillars of oriental granite, conducts to a magnifi¬ 
cent gallery, occupying the four sides of a square court, and 
containing one of the largest and best collection of 
paintings in Italy. 
The Colonna palace has the finest gallery, and the best 
collection of pictures in Rome. The exterior of the building 
is of indifferent architecture. The library is spacious and 
well filled, and its great gallery, more than 220 feet long, 
and .40 broad, is supported by Corinthian pillars and pilas¬ 
ters of beautiful yellow marble, and adorned on the sides 
and vaulted ceilings with paintings and gildings inter¬ 
mingled. 
A part of the paintings and curiosities of the Palazzo Bar- 
berini have been sold, from the poverty of the family. 
Another part of them at the Lucanni palaces form a very 
select collection. 
The Palazzo Borghese, one of the largest and handsomest 
in Rome, is now inhabited by Paolina, the sister of Buona¬ 
parte and the wife of the prince Borghese, who lives con¬ 
stantly at Florence. The edifice is superb, and remarkable 
for its extent, its porticoes, its granite columns, and its paint¬ 
ings and statues. 
The other leading palaces in Rome are the P. Ruspoli, 
remarkable for its staircase ; the P. Orsini, founded on the 
theatre of Marcellus; the P. Giustiniani, standing npar Nero’s 
baths, and adorned with the statues and columns extracted 
Von. XXII. No. 1506. 
M E. Antiquities, &c. 345 
from them; the P. Altieri, adorned with the pictures of 
Claude Lorraine; the P. Corsini, once the residence of 
Christiana, queen of Sweeden, remarkable for its fine library 
and collection of prints ; the P. Farnese, of immense size and 
elevation, and considered by some as the finest in Rome; 
the P. Falconieri, the residence of Cardinal Fesch; the 
P. Spada, containing the celebrated statue of Pompey. 
Rome, without being a place of active study, is the seat of 
several seminaries; an university, a Greek, a German, and a 
Jesuit college. The Propaganda, or college for the diffusion 
of the Christian faith, is on an extensive scale, containing a 
number of youths of different nations, and a press for print¬ 
ing books in more than thirty languages. Rome contains 
likewise several literary associations, viz. the Arcadian 
academy, the archaeological, the academia Tiberiani, the 
academy of the fine arts. A monthly publication, partaking 
of the mixed nature of a review and magazine, appears under 
the title of Giornale Arcadico de scienze, letere, ed arti; and 
since 1819, there is published weekly, a Giornale Encyclope- 
dico, containing articles on the physical sciences, chiefly 
translations, along with some pieces of poetry. These are 
feeble publications for a place of such size and celebrity ; but 
the fame of modern Rome lies not in literature, but in the fine 
arts. It has long been a resort for painters, sculptors, and 
architects, both from Italy, France, and other countries. The 
private collections of pictures, statues, and antiquities, are 
numerous and extensive. In other respects the taste of instruc¬ 
tion is less attended to than in France or England; the 
young men giving themselves little concern about study, and 
the young women being imperfectly instructed, even in 
ornamental accomplishments. 
The inhabitants of Rome amounted in 1817 to 131,000, in 
1821, to 135,171, in 1822, to 136,085. This number, 
whatever may be the assertions to the contrary, seems to 
have formed, with little variation, its population for a cen¬ 
tury past. The people occupy a third of the space inclosed by 
the walls; and as the circuit of modem Rome is not inferior 
to that of the ancient city, the reported population of the 
mistress of the world must have -been greatly exaggerated. 
The official returns mentioned in Roman history are to be un¬ 
derstood, not of the inhabitants of the city, but of persons 
possessing the privileges of Roman citizens; and when we 
consider the limited supply of provisions in an age of back¬ 
ward navigation, along with the smallness of the farms in 
the adjacent country, and in particular, the ascertained 
limits of the city, there seems little room for estimating the 
population of imperial Rome at more than 300,000 or 400,000. 
The position of the city had naturally very little strength; 
her means of defence, like those of Sparta, lay in the number 
of her armed citizens, and in the difficulty attendant on the 
siege of any walled town before the invention of artillery. 
Of the present inhabitants of Rome, no less than 9000 are 
Jews, a number of whom are employed in the same active 
but irregular traffic as in Holland, Germany, and other coun¬ 
tries. They are restricted to a particular quarter, the gates of 
which are closed every night. This place is very dirty, but 
a similar charge may be made against modern Rome at large; 
water, though abundant, being very little used for cleanliness, 
and the rooms being infested with fleas and and other vermin. 
The number of Catholic inhabitants connected with the 
church, as priests, monks, or nuns, is computed at 7000 or 
8000. The manufacturing establishments are small, but in 
considerable variety; viz. woollens, silks, velvets, hats, 
gloves, stockings, liquors, pommade, and artificial flowers. 
Of articles connected with the fine arts, a small export takes 
place. Rome has its bank, and its Monte di Pieta, or house 
for advancing money on deposited goods. Its for«gn trade 
is limited to imports of colonial articles, and a few manufac¬ 
tures, such as printed cottons: its exports consist of the pro¬ 
duce of the adjacent country, viz. alum, vitrol, puzzuolano 
sand, olive oil, anise, and a few other articles. 
The society of Rome has long formed one of its great attrac¬ 
tions. The police exercises no inquisitorial power, being actu¬ 
ated by no political suspicions; and every person, whether 
foreigner or native, may live as he thinks proper, without ex- 
4 T citing 
