e 
12 
pairs the quality of the fruit. On the 
firft apparent fymptom of wet weather, 
they hafte to collect the grapes into great 
heaps, which they cover with mats to pro- 
te&t them from the rain, or at leaft to di- 
minifh the damage. In fome years, above 
fwo-thirds of the crop are entirely deftroy- 
ed by the rain: the fruit rots, and the 
Owners are obliged to throw it away, or 
fave with difficulty a finall portion which 
they give to theircattle. The Corinth of 
the firft quality ought to be very dry; in 
which ftate the berries refemble grains 
of pepper. When the fruit is deemed to 
be fufiiciently dried, the berries are pulled 
trom the ftems, and carefully winnowed 
in a van, for the purpofe of purifying 
them from clay and duf@t. They are then 
put into facks, and carried to repefitories 
called ferraglie, where the fruit remains 
in ftore until the moment of embarkation. 
‘The ferraghe are lined with boards on 
every fide, to protect the fruit from being 
injured by the damp or -coldnefs of the 
walls. Thefe magazines have two open- 
ings—the one, a trap door in the floor of 
the apartment above, the other, a door 
below. To the former the peafant car- 
ries the facks containing the produce of 
his crop, which, after being weighed, are 
emptied through the aperture. “The owner 
of the /erraglia keeps an accompt of the 
quantity and quality of the fruit he re- 
ceives, for which he is refponfible. He 
gives to the peafant a written acknow- 
jedgment for it, figned under his hand 3. 
which receipt pafles current in trade, and 
is negotiable in the public market. There 
are great numbers’ of thefe magazines, 
the largeft of which do not contain above 
three or four hundred thoufand pounds 
weight. At the moment when the Co- 
rinths are to be embarked, the coopers 
take their poft at the door of the fe raglia, 
where, in proportion as they prepare the 
¢afks, the fruit is thrown in, and  care- 
fully prefied down. Boe acer. 
‘The Corinth grape furnifhes likewife a 
wine which is very rich, and good for the 
fiomach. The ufe of it is ftrongly recom: 
mended by the phyficians during the con- 
walefcency of their patients. That wine 
is not made from the frefh-gathered fruit: 
the grapes are firft expofed during three 
or four days to dry in the fun, one bunch 
being laid over another, forthe purpofe of 
diminifhing the too powerful effect of the 
heat. They are then carried to the prefs- 
room, where they lie fome days in a heap: 
a third part of water is thrown on the 
‘he&p, which is trampled with the feet, 
uatil reduced to a fort of pafte. It is then 
3 
On Punétuation, fecond Letter. 
[Peps as, 
Jaid on the pre(s, and yields a thici’ wine 
of a dark colour, which clarifies itfelf in 
the cafks by depofiting its fediment. 
I am, &c. J.C. 
| 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
YOTWITHSTANDING that the 
ancients made ufe of three forts of 
points, or marks of paules, the comma, 
the colin, and the period; as has been 
fhown in my former letter, on the autho- 
rity of Isiporus of Spain, bifhop of Se- 
ville, in his Origimes*; the very early 
printers feem to have known no other 
point but the period. Of their works, it 
is true, IT have not had an opportunity of 
examining many: but the oldeft printed 
book in my pofleffion makes ufe of the full 
point cnly. ‘This is PereR COMEsTOR’s. 
Hiftoria Scholaftica; or, Hiftory of the Old 
and New Teftament. My copy has loft 
the title page; but at the end is the fol- 
lowing concluding note, or colophon. 
1483. 
Incarnationis dniceano. MCCCCLXXXIII, 
preclara hoc opus Scolattice Hiftorie. fac. 
toribus Johanne de Greningen. nec no 
Heinrico de Jnguiler impreffiorie artis ma- 
giltris. in inclita Argentino  civitate 
poflibili emendatione > viaimpiu3 Menfis 
auguftidie. xxvii feliciter eft confum- 
matum. 
This beok is in the old black letter, 
fuck as was ufed in manufcripts in the 
fourteenth and fifteenth century. It forms 
one moderate-fized volume, in folio; and 
exhibits a fpecimen of the early perfection 
of printing. ‘Though publifhed but little 
more than forty years after the invention 
of the art, the regularity and fharpnefs of 
the type, and the clearnefs of the impref- 
fion, are excelled by few fpecimens of mo- 
dern exaétnefs in thefe refpects, and are 
fuperior tomoft. Like many of the early 
printed books, it is taken eff upon ftreng, 
and good, writing paper ; but of a rough 
texture, and void of that polifh, which, of 
late, by means of hot-prefling, has given 
fuch exquifite and finifhed beauty, to fome 
of the typograpliical exertions of modern 
artifts. | Hil 
** While this book prefents no other point 
but the period, it abounds in abbreviations 
of various kinds, and often difficult to 
decypher; as moft of the early-printed 
* Originum five Etymologiarum lib, I. 
cap, xix. Operum p.6, The edition which I 
make ufe of is that of Du Breurt, pub- 
lifhed at Colognin 2637, in one volume ig 
folic, ' : vile ; \ 
i book 
