1804.) 
Chast iy 
VARIETIES, Lirzrary anp PutLosopnHica., 
Including Notices of Works in Hand, Domeftic and Foreign. 
%,* Authentic Communications for this Article will always be thankfully received. 
Sater NSLS Tea 
HE fix Rolls of Papiri, prefented 
to THE PRiNCE OF WaLEs by the 
King of Naples, are arrived*in London ; 
and, under the immediate aufpices of 
H!s RoyaL Hicuness, will be given 
to the world with all convenient fpred. 
In the year 1800, his Royal Hignnefs 
directed the Rev. Joun Hayter, a gen- 
tleman eminently qualified for the tafk, to 
go to Italy, and with a fuitable provificn, 
to exert himielf on the fpot, under the 
permillion. of the King of Naples, to un. 
rol and tranicribe the Papiri. Mr. Hay- 
ter addrefied a letter to the Prince at the 
outfet of his miffion, in 1800, an extract 
from which will be interefting to our 
readers. “* The number of the manu- 
{cripts fived from Herculaneum and Pom. 
pett, is faid to be about 500; but if I 
am rightly informed by thofe whofe off- 
cial fituation mult give them a competent 
knowledge of the fubject, your Royal High- 
nels, by facilitating the developement of 
thefe volumes, will probably be the means 
of further excavation, and of refcuing from 
their interment an infisite quantity of 
ethers. About thirty years ago, his Sici- 
Jian Majefty ordered the developement, the 
‘tranfcription, and the printing of thofe ve- 
‘lumes which had then been faved, to be 
undertaken. This operation was acco:d- 
iwgly begun, and has never been dilcon- 
tinued till the late invaGion of the French, 
But its mode, however excellent, was ex- 
tremely flow; it has been performed by a 
fingle perfon, with a fingie trame only, 
under the diregtian of the Marquis del 
Vafto, Chamberlain to the King, and Pre- 
fident of the Royal Academy. ‘The frame 
confifts of feveral taper aad oblong pieces 
of wood, with pavailel threads of filk, that 
run on each fide, the length of each piece ; 
when the frame is [sid oa any volume, 
€ach piece of wood mut be fixed precilely 
over each line of the page, while the re- 
{peCtive threads, being woiked bencath 
each line, and afliited by the correipond- 
ing piece of wood above, raife the line 
upwards, and dilclofe the charaiters io 
view. The operation ftems ingenious, 
and well adapted to the purpofe; it was, 
I believe, invented by a Capuchin, at 
Naples.—The fruits of it aie faid to be 
two publications only, one on Mufic, by 
the celebrated Philodemus, who was a 
cotempurary ef Cicero; aud the other on 
Cookery. The firft is in his Majelty’s 
hbrary, at the Queen’s palace. Through 
the obliging polienefs of Mr. Barnard,, 
the King’s librarian, I have had the ad- 
vantage of peruiing it. Indeed, I hope 
your Royal Highnefs will not difapprove 
my acknowledging in this place the very 
warm and relpecttul intcreit which both 
this gentieman and the Right Honourable 
the Prefident of toe Royal Society have 
expreficd for the furtherance of your 
Royal Highnets’s great and good detign. 
Meanwhile, by this {pecimen of Philode- 
mus 1 am convinced that, if the trames 
fhould be multiplied to the propofed ex- 
tent, feveral pag.s of thity different. ma. 
nufcripts migat be ditcloled and tran- 
{cribed «within the fpace of one week. 
But the very period at which the manu. 
{ciipts weve buried, fervis to point out te 
your Royal Highnels that you may expect 
the recovery ct either the whole, or at 
leaft parts, of the beit writers of antiquity, 
hitherto deemed irrecoverable. Ail of | 
thefe, in tiuth, had written before that 
period, if we except Tacitus, whofe inefi- 
mable works were unfortunately not com- 
poied till twenty years afterwards, during 
the reign of Trajan. Nor can it be ima- 
gined toy a moment, that among fivg or 
ix hundred manufevipts, alrrady excawat- 
ed, and elpecially trom the sumberlefs _ 
oves which further excavations may fup- 
ply, loft at fuch a period ia two of the 
moft capital cities, in the richett, naoit fre- 
quented, and moft learned province of 
Ttaly, each of them an eitablithed feat of 
the arts and {c.ences, each of therm the re- 
fort of the moit difinguifbed Romans, nog 
any part of thofe wiutrious authors fhould 
be difcovered. But the manulcript of 
bilsdemus itfelf makes the -reyerie of 
fuch an idea appear much more probable, 
‘To the moderns who have 
* Untwifted all the chains that tie 
The hidden foul of haruony,” 
his Treatife on Mufic cannot wdeed be 
fuppofed to eammunicate mach informa- 
tion; yet the fubject is fcicntifc, and 
‘fcientifically treated. The author him- 
felf, too, was ene cf the mek cininent 
men im dis time for wit, learming, and 
prilofophy. But in the reft of the arts 
and feiences, in hiftory, in peetry, the difs 
covery of any loft writer, either in whole 
or in part, wauld be deemed a moft a 
big 
