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 tendon. Tub lit htd^ 1/>ril ss 1 i!Hi b r Mi.b.inl TAM/*. 3 V 7 . 
 
A REPORT 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 Herculaneum jftlanuscrtpts, 
 
 IN A 
 
 SECOND LETTER, 
 
 ADDRESSED, BY PERMISSION, 
 
 TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 
 
 THE 
 
 PRINCE REGENT, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOHN HAYTER, A.M. 
 
 CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE PRINCE, 
 
 AND HIS SUPERINTENDENT OF THOSE MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 “ prasbetur Origo 
 
 Per Cinerem. Claudian. 
 
 Eonfcon : 
 
 PRINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, No. 7, BRIDGE STREET; 
 BY GEORGE SIDNEY, NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, STRAND. 
 
 1811. 
 

 
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PREFATORY REMARK. 
 
 Two or three references are necessarily made in 
 this Second Letter to the First, which was ad- 
 dressed to the same Illustrious Personage. For 
 this reason a new and corrected Edition of that 
 First Letter is subjoined to the present. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' ’ { 
 
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 y fc • . t . 
 
 V ; • ' 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
TO 
 
 HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 
 
 THE 
 
 PRINCE REGENT. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 It must be regarded by every person, 
 as a very distinguished honour to me, to have 
 been selected by your Royal Highness for the 
 arduous and important charge, and direction of 
 restoring to light the contents of the celebrated 
 Herculaneum Manuscripts- 
 
 Before my departure from England, in 1 800, 
 1 was most graciously permitted to represent the 
 whole scope of this literary mission, in a printed 
 
 B 
 

 2 
 
 letter, addressed to your Royal Highness, as the 
 great and illustrious Patron of the undertaking. 
 Since my return, that letter has, with the same 
 gracious permission, been reprinted, in order to 
 correct some errors, which a want of local, as 
 well as accurate, information had unavoidably 
 occasioned. 
 
 But of infinitely more consequence is the 
 advantage, which I now enjoy, of addressing to 
 your Royal Highness, in this letter, a faithful 
 and detailed account of every circumstance, 
 transaction, and occurrence, which, in any man- 
 ner, are connected with the nature, the com- 
 mencement, the prosecution, and the result of 
 the undertaking, of which the successful, at least 
 very promising, course was interrupted, most 
 unfortunately, in the year 1806, by the French 
 invasion of the Neapolitan territory. Hence it 
 will clearly appear, I most confidently trust, that, 
 notwithstanding that invasion, notwithstanding 
 
3 
 
 all the weakness, the ignorance, the jealousy, 
 and the treachery, which, from several quarters, 
 were conducive to the purpose of impeding, or 
 counteracting, the progress of my labours, yet 
 the Commands of your Royal Highness, in this 
 most princely work, have been executed to a 
 greater extent, than could have been reasonably 
 presumed. In truth, the J'ac simile copies of 
 ninety-four manuscripts, lately transferred, by 
 your wise and munificent donation, through the 
 hands of that most distinguished, both scholar 
 and statesman, — that, upon every consideration, 
 most respectable nobleman, Lord Grenville, — to 
 the University of Oxford, will, unquestionably, 
 serve to immortalize your name in every future 
 generation, more especially of the learned world. 
 
 Nor was your Royal interposition, in this 
 instance, merely glorious ; it was, happily, too, 
 most seasonable. In any court, where an indif- 
 ference, to any degree, prevails against the pur- 
 
 b 2 
 
4 
 
 suits, and interests of knowledge, and erudition in 
 general, treasures, inestimable treasures, of anci- 
 ent literature, like these manuscripts of Heicula- 
 neum, although composed in the two classical 
 languages, could not engage a single thought, 
 much less any regard, or attention whatsoever. 
 Besides, the crisis itself, and, particularly, the 
 ruinous expences of a war with the common 
 enemy, rendered it nearly impracticable for the 
 embarrassed sovereign of the two Sicilies, even if 
 he had been so disposed, to promote the attain- 
 ment of literary objects, by dedicating to them 
 any part of his concern, or of his revenue. 
 
 You, most illustrious Sir, are the only Royal 
 Personage, at the present era, of those high and 
 disinterested sentiments, which, renouncing every 
 personal view, every selfish regard, excite a phi- 
 lanthropic zeal, an humane ambition, to form and 
 to advance any great design, which may tend to 
 some laudable and beneficial end. To yourself 
 
5 
 
 alone these despondent relics of old Greece and 
 Rome could have had recourse for the vindica- 
 tion of their merits, and even for the protection 
 of their existence. To the Prince of Wales alone 
 could they, with any hope of success, offer their 
 supplications in the language of a former and 
 similar occasion, in these expressions of 
 
 M ctdrifACLgi m Js TlctXcouv 
 
 EAA^W!/, V (f) va.^, 'ctpxssov ’oi'^Q^zvoig. 
 
 But, in estimating their claim upon your 
 Royal interference, it should be recollected, these 
 Manuscripts relied not only upon the two classical 
 languages, in which they are written, but also upon 
 their age itself, which outruns the date of any 
 other Manuscripts upon earth. Why should I 
 say their age ? In truth, the date of their very 
 loss exceeds by centuries the age, howsoever oreat 
 it maj he, of all other books and autographs, 
 
6 
 
 which have survived the wreck of ancient learn- 
 ing ; and their developement, although it obtained 
 the acquisition of solitary unconnected characters, 
 would, as furnishing a criterion of orthography, 
 or literal delineation, furnish “ Jewels richer than 
 the whole tribe” of all other ancient books, and 
 autographs. 
 
 It should not be omitted, that their -value is 
 incalculably enhanced by the local eminence of 
 their discovery. The Romans took possession of 
 Herculaneum, U. C. 460. A. C. 293 . “ Jam 
 
 Servilius,” Livy informs us, “ Volanam, et 
 Palumbinum, et Herculaneum, in Samnitibus 
 ceperat. — Ad Herculaneum bis etiam signis 
 collatis ancipiti prselio.” As belonging to the 
 Samnites, whose language is evidently uf oriental 
 extraction, it may not improbably in its name 
 combine terms the same with those of the 
 Hebrew* “jH “ mountain,” and “ burn- 
 
 * It is a circumstance extremely curious, that, in one of the most 
 learned and popular Journals, this etymology is reprehended, because the 
 
7 
 
 mg.” Should this etymological conjecture be 
 deemed not altogether admissible, it must, 
 however, be confessed, that it is at least recom- 
 mended to some notice by the situation of the 
 city itself. Besides, the impending Vesuvius is 
 generally stated by antiquarians to derive its 
 appellation from the oriental or NEW 
 
 fire. Hence Vesuv among the Tuscans, who 
 are fond of the u, and then B ssfiios, and then 
 Vesuvius. Vesta is supposed to be of the same 
 origin. Strabo calls the mountain 'o veggmov. 
 Dion. Hal. 'Ovesfiiov. Galen says, 'o i 'oMpifisgrspoi 
 Begovfiiov ’ovofzct^ovgiv r o<T ev$o%ov, toil vsov ovofia. tov Aocpou 
 
 mountain was not burning antecedently to the time when Herculaneum 
 was destroyed. But the Journalist might have reflected, that, as no 
 written record of a prior eruption existed, yet we are told by Strabo, that 
 the soil and appearance of the mountain itself exhibited sufficient record 
 of eruption, or eruptions. In excavating the two cities of Herculaneum 
 and Pompeii, volcanic strata were found under the houses and the streets, 
 and the streets themselves are paved, and the houses are builded, with 
 volcanic stones and lava. 
 
BisjSioy. Varro calls it Vesubius, and Vesuius. 
 Virgil and Suetonius, Vesevus. Columella, Sta- 
 tius, Martial, Silius Italicus, and Val. Flaccus, 
 differently. 
 
 This enumeration of various names is in- 
 troduced here for the sole purpose of inferring, 
 with some apparent authority, that, as both the 
 Greeks and Romans are so vague in expressing 
 the denomination of Vesuvius, they had 
 derived it from some Eastern language, from 
 which the name, Herculaneum, is, therefore, 
 with as much probability, derived. It may not 
 be improper, perhaps, to subjoin, that the Greeks 
 very commonly articulated a foreign aspirate by 
 B, and the Romans by V. 
 
 According to all historians, the Samnites 
 were a nation both warlike and powerful. Eo 
 anno (U. C. 412, A. C. 340,) adversus Samnites, 
 gentem opibus, annisque validam, nota anna. 
 A piece of marble, preserved in the Royal 
 
9 
 
 Museum of Portici, has an inscription in Samni- 
 tical characters. 
 
 vi u s s e t a t n e r eh 
 
 ?ri*T M3 ays 
 
 Sum Sacra Tabula 
 
 This stone, thus inscribed, was found in 
 Herculaneum, which, of course, was Samnitical. 
 Besides, as it could resist a besieging army, even 
 of the Romans, it must have been a place of 
 some strength and consideration. If we suppose, 
 that the Osci, Tyrrheni, or Tusci, and Pelasgi, 
 and Samnites, were not the same, the antiquity 
 of Herculaneum becomes more respectable. 
 *0 sxoi <Js *etx ov x* 1 tmtw (Herculaneum) mi rrjv ’eq>e%w 
 noy.zct.lxv — SITX Tvpprivoi , mi Ue7\x;yoi. Mstcc txvtx 
 X xyviTUl. 'Ovtoi <T S^SZSSOV £)C TUV tozuv. 
 
 This passage of the Geographer, compared 
 with that of Dionysius Hal. assigns a very 
 remote period to the existence of this city. 
 
 c 
 
10 
 
 v O Js ^povoi, iv 'w TO IIsAasyi/coi/ /Cflucoiij0ai '^p^aro, Jsursp* 
 ysvsa gyzftov i rpo tuv Tpmuuv syevsTo. It must strike 
 our attention, somewhat forcibly, in support of a 
 claim to remote antiquity, that the inscription 
 must be read, like Eastern Languages, from the 
 right hand to the left. 
 
 The political state of Herculaneum, whe- 
 ther it were a settlement of Phoenicians, or of 
 other Asiaticks, cannot be traced with any exact- 
 ness, or conclusive deduction, from facts and 
 circumstances, at any epocha earlier, than that 
 of the Roman dominion. It can only be argued 
 
 presumptively from Strabo, that it might have 
 been of the twelve cities, which formed the 
 dynasty of the Tuscans in Campania. The 
 opposition, it made to the victorious legions of 
 Rome, the municipal rights which it enjoyed 
 after its subjugation, clearly indicate some pros- 
 perity, and some importance in the estimation of 
 the conqueror. 
 
11 
 
 Herculaneum is twice called Municipium, 
 that is, in an inscription, which I saw in the 
 Royal Museum at Portici; and again, in another 
 inscription, which Julius Caesar Capaccio produces. 
 That of the Royal Museum runs, 
 
 M. Memmio M. F. Rufo Patri 
 Municipes. 
 
 And is sanctioned, should more proof and au- 
 thorities be demanded, by a brass plate, which at 
 once evinces the municipal privileges of this 
 city to the most scrupulous investigator. 
 
 T. Claudio. Drusi. F. 
 
 Caesari. Augusti. 
 
 Germanico. 
 
 Pont:. Max: Trib: Pot: 8. 
 
 Imp: 16. Cos. 2. 
 
 Patri. Patriae. Cens. 
 
 Ex Testimenti Messii L. F. M. A. 
 Senecae. 
 
 c 2 
 
12 
 
 Militis Coh: 10 Urbanae, et 
 Dedication! ejus legavit 
 Muicipibus 
 Singulis HS. I1II n. 
 
 From some inscribed pieces of stone it ap- 
 pears, that, as Cives Romani, the inhabitants of 
 Herculaneum were enrolled in some tribe at 
 Rome itself, particularly the Menenian. 
 
 L. Annio L. F. Men. 
 
 2 Vir. Itin: Quin . . 
 
 . . Vir Epularum. 
 
 It may not be improper to suggest, that all 
 the inscriptions, which I have produced, or may 
 produce, have been digged from Herculaneum, 
 and, except that of Julius Caesar Capaccio, have 
 been perused and examined by me. 
 
 Exclusive of a short interval in the Marsick 
 or social war, this city remained in tranquil sub- 
 jection to Consular and Imperial Rome. 
 
13 
 
 Divo Julio 
 Herculanenses. 
 
 Germanico Caesari Tib. F. Divi Augusti n. 
 Divi Julii pronepoti. Auguri. Flamini Augustalio. 
 
 Cos. 2. Imp. ii. 
 
 The Emperors, on their part, seem to have 
 been grateful for the loyal attachment of this 
 people. Thus, 
 
 Imp: Caes. Vespasianus Aug. Pontifex Max. 
 Trib: Pot. 7. Imp. 17. P. P. Cos. 7. Desig: 8. 
 Templum Matris Deum terrae motu collapsun 
 
 Restituit. 
 
 Again upon a publick weight. 
 
 Imp. Vesp. Aug: IIX. 
 
 T. Imp: Aug. F: VI C. 
 
 Exacta in Capitolio. 
 
 And upon another publick weight. 
 
 Tib: Clan. Caes. Aug: Vitel. 
 
 Ill Cos. exacta ad artic: 
 
 Cura JEdil. 
 
14 
 
 And upon a brass Sextarius. 
 
 D. D. P. P. Here. 
 
 That is, Decurionum Decreto Prsefecti ponderibus 
 Herculanensium . 
 
 These three inscriptions inform us of ano- 
 tlier municipal right enjoyed by the Hercula- 
 nenses in their Ponderale, or House of Publick 
 W eights. 
 
 There was an earthquake. Anno Christi 63, 
 sixteen years previous to that eruption of V esu- 
 vius, which destroyed Herculaneum, Anno Christi 
 79. Seneca declares, that in this earthquake 
 Herculanensis oppidi pars ruit, dubieque stant 
 etiam, quae relicta sunt. Nonis Februarii fuit 
 terrse motus. 
 
 In an enclosure behind the great theatre a 
 heap of tiles, respectively numbered, together 
 with the trunk of a marble statue, and the frag- 
 ments of several columns, was excavated under 
 the volcanick materials. Another earthquake. 
 
15 
 
 indeed, immediately preceded, or rather at- 
 tended, that eruption. Some houses were 
 thrown to the ground by the severe concussion. 
 Their ruins are partly spread upon the original 
 soil, partly upon the pumice stones discharged 
 from the mountain. Pliny, in his account ad- 
 dressed to Tacitus, says, “ Praecesserat per multos 
 dies treror terra: minus formidilosus, qui Cam- 
 paniae non solum castella, verum etiam oppida 
 vexare solitus : ilia vero nocte ita invaluit, ut 
 non moveri omnia, sed everti crederentur.” In 
 this letter, as well as in the 10th of the same 
 book, to the same friend, Pliny has proved him- 
 self to have “ Omnia vere prosecutum,” al- 
 though, with great modesty, he remark, “ Aliud 
 est Epistolam, aliud Historiam scribere.” 
 
 Conformably to his faithful description, 
 the excavated stratum is not lava, as has been 
 often said, but “ Pumices nigrique et ambusti, 
 et fracti igne lap i des/’ to the depth of nearly 
 
16 
 
 seventy feet in many places. All the wood in 
 Herculaneum was reduced to coals, and every 
 thing combustible was not only injured by the 
 extreme heat, but, as was the case with the ma- 
 nuscripts, was violently compressed, and con- 
 tracted by the ponderous pressure of the volca- 
 nick materials. In one of his best poetical efforts 
 Statius justly says, 
 
 Pater exemtum terris ad sidera montem 
 
 Sustulit, et late miseras dejecit in urbes. 
 
 Upon this stratum of stones, first liquified, 
 and then hardened and incorporated into prodi- 
 gious masses, there has been raised a second stra- 
 turn, accumulated by the scoriae of 1631. The 
 celebrated Mazzochi objects to the edited date 
 of the eruption in Pliny, and changes it from 
 9 Cal : Sep : into 9 Cal : Dec : in order to make 
 it consistent with the remains of dried fruits, 
 such as chesnuts, figs, and raisins, found in the 
 excavation, and preserved in the Royal Museum 
 
17 
 
 of Portici. These fruits, he says, in Campania, 
 are not saved before October. It is most true, I 
 have seen these fruits, and also some cones of firs, 
 in that museum. But, considering the nature of 
 the climate, and the unripe state, in which those 
 fruits and cones may have been gathered, and the 
 possible variations of season, I cannot conclude, 
 with Mazzochi, that they will justify his emen- 
 . dation. 
 
 A fragment of L. Sisenna, in Nonius Mar- 
 cellus, informs us, that, “ Oppidum Hercula- 
 neum tumulo in excelso loco propter mare parvis 
 maenibus inter duos fluvios infra Vesuvium posi- 
 tum.” It is very remarkable, that no sign of 
 these two rivers, except some water bubbling, 
 and making its way through the Tophus, or Pap- 
 pamonte, in its supposed ancient channel, is now 
 remaining. A passage in the Book of Statutes, 
 belonging to the Chapter of the Cathedral at 
 Naples, was shewed to me ; it had these words : — 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 ie At vero pro vino Greco in ista parte fluminis,” 
 which, relating to the claim of the Chapter upon 
 the wine to a certain extent about Torre Ottava, 
 render indubitable the existence of one river at 
 least, until the year 1534. 
 
 By the two ouasrai , or conditores, whom the 
 munificent Titus appointed, he gave the sur- 
 viving and distressed inhabitants of this city 
 Xp^aTa aAAa Koii T a tcov cwsv x?.r)povo{/.(t)v tsQvwotuv. 
 They were, too, if we may credit a Neapolitan 
 inscription of Gruter, settled by these Conditores 
 in Naples. 
 
 L. Munatio Concessia 
 No V. P. Patrono Colo 
 nise pro meritis ejus 
 Erga cives munifica 
 Largitate olim hono- 
 rem debitum praestan 
 tessimo Viro prsesens 
 Tempus exegit. Quo etiam 
 
19 
 
 Munatii Concessiani Filii 
 Sui Demarchia cumulatiore 
 Sumptu Liberalitatis abun 
 dantia universis exhibuit Civibus, 
 
 Obquse Testimonia amoris sinceris 
 simi Reg: primaria splendidissi 
 ma Herculanensium patrono mira 
 bill statuam ponendam decrevit. 
 
 Capaccio shews, there was a Compitum 
 Herculeum at Naples* This circumstance, added 
 to the weight of the inscription, removes, it 
 should seem, every doubt about the spot, whither 
 the expatriated inhabitants of Herculaneum were 
 transferred. 
 
 Thus, with as much conciseness, as the sub- 
 ject could well admit, I have endeavoured to 
 present to the view of your Royal Highness the 
 origin, and the various fortunes of this city, and 
 the final ruin, into which it was plunged by its 
 formidable neighbour, Vesuvius. 
 
 d 2 
 
<20 
 
 Not less connected with the object of my 
 employment, the manuscripts, or “ papiri,” is the 
 mountain itself, to which they owe their pre- 
 sent state, and appearance, than the place, in 
 which they were so long, that is, for the space of 
 1673 years, buried, and, while buried, most 
 wonderfully preserved under a stupendous mass 
 of volcanick substance. Some faint tradition, 
 intimated in the appellation of “ Campi Phlegrsei,” 
 and in the Battle of the Giants, supported among 
 the ancients a belief, that an eruption, or erup- 
 tions, prior to that of 79, in the first year of 
 Titus, had taken place. The <e memoratur an- 
 tiquitus exarsisse” of Vitruvius is strengthened by 
 the more prolix account of the Sicilian Diodorus. 
 ’QvofJux.sOa.i <Je tovto cpheypouov Wo t ov A o<pov tov to zoCKoliov 
 xkKstov zvp ’eiupvsoLVTog KxpxzMsioog tjjv Xins'Kia.v 
 
 v Aitvx. KaAstTat Se vvv o tokos O vegfitog tyuv koKKv. grifjoha 
 TOV xsmvgQcu kxtx Tovg xpyxiovs xpovoyf. Tacitus, 
 in his usual manner, expresses it, “ Novis cladi- 
 
21 
 
 bus, vel post longam seculorum seriem repetitis. 
 Symptoms of former eruption have displayed 
 themselves in the different strata of wells digged 
 to a considerable depth ; besides these symptoms, 
 which I mentioned in my note upon the Jour- 
 nalists, some have drawn the same inference 
 from Lucretius, where he says, 
 
 Qualisapud Cumas locus est, montemque Vesevum, 
 Oppleti calidis ubi fumant fontibus haustus. 
 
 Strabo, by whom the plain about, and under 
 the mountain is called ’Aypog Ta.ym'kog, was of 
 opinion, that the surface of the ground exhibited 
 undeniable marks of former eruption, or, in his 
 OWll words, ’£lg ’ a.v TSKpoiipoi to %copiov tovto misgQou 
 
 TpOTSpOV. 
 
 After the eruption of 79 there have been 
 more, than thirty other eruptions. One of them, 
 described by Cassiodorus, and Procopius, seems to 
 have been extraordinarily dreadful. 
 
 The figure of the mountain, which has 
 
22 
 
 sometimes burst its sides, sometimes vented its 
 fury at its top, must have experienced many con- 
 siderable changes. For instance, Strabo has rf}? 
 xopvprjs only? Dio "A; xopvpcii. Statius was a 
 Neapolitan, and was eye-witness of the eruption 
 in 79. Who, therefore, can well gainsay his 
 veracity in any thing, which he communicates 
 relative to it ? But his veracity is of very mate- 
 rial importance to the antiquities of these manu- 
 scripts. He assures us, that the complete 
 destruction, and interment of whole cities, and 
 the absorption, and annihilation of whole farms 
 and estates, were the consequences of that 
 eruption. 
 
 Mira fides ! credetne virum ventura propago, 
 Cumsegetes iterum, cum jam hsec deserta virebunt. 
 Infra urbes, populosque premi, proavitaque toto 
 
 Rura abiisse mari ? 
 
 The 44 erat” of Martial, in speaking of 
 Herculaneum, His 
 
23 
 
 Cunita jacent flammis, et tristi mersa favilla, 
 
 the Taj woheig <5 vo oAa; TO T£ 'HptiOVXoLHOV TOVg T£ 
 
 Tlo[Xviriiovg mrz^wguv, of Dio, the r w ’ayvoictv, koLi 
 ’ctgxcpeiciv, okov mrmrinoLi” of Plutarch, the t e&vn 
 mgiv oXa.i noKeig mi 'UpoiHXcuov, of the Emperor Mar- 
 cus Antoninus, and the silence of succeeding geo- 
 graphers are sufficient to prove to your Royal 
 Highness the total destruction, and disappearance 
 of this city. 
 
 Upon the other hand, it is my duty towards 
 the Prince of Wales, especially as both justice, 
 and candour require it from me, not to suppress, 
 what has been asserted by the opponents of this 
 total destruction. In the annals of literature 
 few persons have attained more celebrity, than 
 Scipio Maffei, among the Italians, and, among 
 the French, Barthelemi. Roth these men have 
 influenced the opinion of some to a great degree, 
 with regard to the loss of this city ; seconded by 
 loannes Larnius, both of them have pronounced. 
 
24 
 
 that the antiquities deposited in the Museum of 
 Portici,byKing Charles III. had not the least to do 
 with Herculaneum; that the Augustana Tabula, 
 commonly called Peutingeriana, from Peutinger, 
 and written in the time of Theodosius the Younger, 
 mentions Herculaneum ; that (which is their 
 only argument not perfectly vague) some coins 
 inscribed Domitianus Caesar in that collection of 
 Portici, even if you acknowledge the identity of 
 those ruins with Herculaneum, would announce 
 the prolongation of its existence after the reign 
 of Titus, and of the eruption, 79. Upon these 
 two alledged proofs their heretical dogma rests. 
 
 At the same time it must be confessed, that 
 my Brethren of the Royal Herculaneum Soci- 
 ety reply with some force, by representing the 
 Greek name of Herculaneum in the Peutingerian 
 Tables, as nothing more than the name of a 
 temple, dedicated to Hercules, or, as a translation 
 of Porticus Herculis, afterwards corrupted into 
 
25 
 
 Portici : that in the Greek capital at a distance 
 from the spot, the compiler might easily mistake 
 one for the other : that, with respect to the 
 coins, the title of Caesar was often, or rather 
 usually, bestowed upon the sons of the Emperor, 
 during the life-time, or reign, of the Sovereign. 
 
 For my own part, if it could be vouchsafed me 
 to address, upon such a question, a reference to so 
 elevated authority, I am sure your Royal High- 
 ness would not hesitate to determine, that a 
 most conclusive argument against Maffei, &c. 
 may be drawn from the manuscripts themselves, 
 because all the names of the writers, hitherto 
 discovered in those manuscripts, are those of 
 writers, not only who lived, but are generally 
 known to have lived, a considerable time before 
 the said eruption, except in the case of one 
 writer, whose title of the work is Kttpmgxoo OiA^ra. 
 This Carneiscus, of whom no mention is made 
 in any extant author, may have lived before, or 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 after, that eruption ; but certain expressions in 
 his manuscript persuade me* that he too lived a 
 considerable time before the said eruption. 
 
 r/ Ev yap <ro<pov (ZovXev[jLu. Toig tfoAAa? %epa? 
 
 N im. 
 
 This verse of Euripides was found, written 
 with ochre upon the walls of a room, which, 
 from other circumstances, is supposed to have 
 been in a house belonging to a pedagogue. The 
 accents, and the minuscule figure of the letters, 
 although they were not employed in transcribing 
 for publick use any books in the Greek language, 
 might naturally be employed in a grammar or 
 writing-school, where Roman, i. e. foreign, scho- 
 lars were taught the different characters of that 
 language, and could not have learned accentual 
 intonation without the assistance, and guide of 
 some visible marks. Upon this subject it would 
 he unjustifiable in me to enlarge, because it 
 would be unnecessary, and, also, an act of pre- 
 
27 
 
 sumption. One of the best Greek scholars, whom 
 this country has ever produced, the late most 
 deeply, and most accurately, learned Dr. Foster, 
 Upper Master of Eton, in his Treatise upon 
 Accents, and Quantity, has established the true 
 account of this subject, with historical, and 
 erudite precision. If any additional statement 
 were wanting, the valuable work of Mr. Mitford 
 would clear every doubt, and satisfy the queries 
 of the most sceptical investigation ; and most cer- 
 tainly would serve to refute any objections, which 
 the before-mentioned cavillers could raise, upon 
 the accents of the cited Greek iambick inscrip- 
 tion, against the date of the total destruction of 
 Herculaneum. In defence of the same date, and 
 consistently with the well-founded proposition of 
 Casley, in his most able performance, “ the 
 Catalogue, 6cc,, the observation of Dr. Taylor, 
 upon this very inscription, seems to be unanswer- 
 able. After referring to an inscription, in Greek, 
 
 e 2 
 
28 
 
 as well as Latin, at Rome, and of the age of 
 Tiberius, he observes, that, “ In the Greek, 
 according to Mauritius, though neglected by 
 Gruter, the little a, the <p, the <T, the w, are all 
 remarkable. The small characters were, there- 
 fore, we see, known at that time, but reserved for 
 private use, like the visible accentual marks, and 
 rarely mixed with their publick monuments/’ 
 With regard to the Latin part of this inscription, 
 where accents are found upon the long vowels, 
 for instance, 
 
 Tu qui secure procedis mente parumper , 
 in a fragment of a Latin poem, which is among 
 the fac simile copies of the Herculaneum manu- 
 scripts, now at Oxford, and attributed, conjec- 
 turally by me, to Varius, the author exhibits 
 in the same manner the same accent upon a 
 long vowel, as constituting a syllable, or part of 
 a metrical foot. 
 
 It may not be improper to close this sum- 
 
29 
 
 mary account of Herculaneum with a curious 
 passage of the Sybilline Oracle in Plutarch, 
 respecting the eruption so fatal to that city. 
 “ To these remarkable and recent evils, (he writes) 
 the ancient theme of Sybilline song, and pro- 
 phecy, has not time done justice, and correspon- 
 dent^ brought to pass? I mean the eruption of 
 fire from the mountain, the boiling effervescence 
 of sea-water, and the violent dispersion of massy 
 stones, and combustion itself, with the assistance 
 of the wind, and the total ruin of so many and 
 so great cities, in such a manner, that the whole 
 country was defaced, and the very site became 
 undistinguishable.” 
 
 How the ruins of Herculaneum were dis- 
 covered, I have already represented to your 
 Royal Highness in my first Letter. Charles Ilf. 
 with his natural liberality, and public spirit, gave 
 his immediate orders for excavation. But, un- 
 fortunately, to the discredit of the Sovereign 
 
30 
 
 himself, and to the injury of his great designs, a 
 Spaniard (I forget his name) was appointed 
 director of the whole. This Spaniard united 
 arrogance, and obstinacy, with the darkest want 
 of knowledge, and, therefore, his whole super- 
 intendency was a course of practical lectures 
 upon those qualities. Hence it is for the literary 
 world a complete eppzw, that all the manuscripts, 
 now preserved, were not sacrificed in common 
 with some others, which the Director, and the 
 equally ignorant, but clearly guiltless, labourers, 
 mistook for pieces of charcoal, or burned timber, 
 and which, in consequence, were removed, and 
 applied by them, to the usual domestick pur- 
 poses. In the course of their removal, however, 
 some detached fragments happily fell from one, 
 or two of these devoted volumes, and displayed 
 upon their surface very distinguishable characters. 
 Of this circumstance the labourers honestly 
 informed the Spaniard, who, as the characters 
 
( ' / . /Wr v /y' ■ 
 
 y 
 
 //// 
 
 £/////- uyv///. T) 
 
 TO) A.e/i -0 
 
 OM 
 
 JOOJsieHeVTJOJ 
 
 talahTciVm 
 on^iaamc 
 twAOIC 
 WJ TOAC€M 
 A_N £ A^X. 
 
 OH 
 
 > V 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 NS S 
 
 N; 
 
 NS 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 . lx 
 
 - fJ. Mr /•/</'! t//r o/sf //< ///*■ V f //'/ ' I '?'?(/) 
 
 // r Mrr/t /Stf'/tfO/) Mr r/tftrnr/r j */ 
 
 A O A II MO 
 P I TO 
 
 LflnUn ritblishi,! April if ! /«?// br Rifhant PltH/i/u AV7JfarJt, 
 
31 
 
 were Greek, could not read them : he was 
 obliged, therefore, to consult that eminent scho- 
 lar, the Canon Mazzochi, about them. To the 
 great joy of Mazzochi, who immediately repaired 
 to the “ Scavi,” the labourers were still pro- 
 curing more manuscripts from two different, but 
 small, rooms in the same house.* The wood of 
 the shelves, upon which they had been placed in 
 small boxes, was, together with the wood of 
 the boxes themselves, strongly charred, or re- 
 duced to ashes. The manuscripts themselves, 
 so providentially saved by the intervention of 
 Mazzochi, and gradually and carefully excavated 
 by the workmen, were not less than eighteen 
 
 * This house is supposed, upon some foundation, to have been the 
 residence of the great Piso family. Cicero, speaking of that residence, 
 observes, that he could see it from his villa, near Puteoli. This circum- 
 stance has been practically confirmed upon the spot where that villa stood, 
 in directing the view towards that part of the volcanick mass, which is 
 perpendicularly over the site of that residence. 
 
32 
 
 hundred, some in a less, some in a more perfect 
 state. It is curious, that these manuscripts, 
 which are always called by the Italians ie Papin,” 
 because the substance of each volume, or roll, 
 was formed from the plant Papyrus,* owe their 
 preservation to the heat of those materials, which 
 had buried them; without this, their vegetable 
 texture must have been destroyed by putrefac- 
 tion. But, although the greatest part of their 
 bulk had thus resisted the effects of time, yet 
 that bulk itself had been much injured. In 
 many instances it was much impaired, some- 
 times obliterated, or disfigured, or perforated. 
 
 * Hence the modern word Paper. The ingenious Chevalier Lando- 
 lini, of Syracuse, who favoured me with a visit at Portici, renewed, with 
 successful experiment, the mode of forming this substance. It both 
 receives and retains, extremely well, and most distinctly, each character of 
 the pen and ink ; our best paper is not more serviceable ; I have often 
 tried it. Landolini, in a manuscript essay, has ably corrected, and 
 explained the corrupt text of Pliny upon this subject. 
 
33 
 
 or mutilated, or broken, wholly, or in part, by that 
 very heat, or by compression under the heavy 
 volcanick materials, or by the forcible introduc- 
 tion of very light dust, and some small stones, 
 into its substance, especially in the more exterior 
 folds of each volume, which, in every instance, 
 have suffered some, or all of those various inju- 
 ries. The interior folds, where the Greek and 
 Latin characters (as the manuscripts are written 
 in both those languages) are not totally annihi- 
 lated by volcanick injuries, exhibit an high 
 degree of preservation, and even a superficial 
 lustre, both in their substance, and in the re- 
 maining characters. The ancient ink had, 
 luckily, a considerable quantity of gum, bqt no 
 acid ; of this we had been informed by Pliny the 
 Elder, who is invaluable, as in so many other 
 respects, so for his extreme accuracy in every 
 point, upon which his indefatigable researches 
 could not be misled by others, or insuperably 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 obstructed, or baffled. By royal command, at the 
 suggestion of Mazzochi, the manuscripts were 
 lodged in the Museum at Portici, and numbered; 
 but, owing to the folly of the Spaniard, were not 
 classed in two divisions, so as to denote the quan- 
 tity found in each of the two respective rooms. 
 
 To advance the developement, and inter- 
 pretation of these volumes, Charles III. insti- 
 tuted a society ; it consisted of members, the 
 most celebrated in that country for their literary 
 attainments, — the Marquis Tannucci, Mazzochi, 
 the Prelate Baiardi,* and some few others. 
 
 * To this extraordinary man all the antiquities of the Museum, ex- 
 cept these manuscripts, were committed, whether from Herculaneum, Pom- 
 peii, or Stabiee. In his History of Herculaneum he begins ab ovo : as he pro- 
 ceeds, he does much : and would have done still more, had not the termina- 
 tion of his life interfered with the completion of his design. In several 
 printed volumes hitherto, he had only given, with genealogical minute- 
 ness, the whole account of Hercules, and his children, man, woman, and 
 child ; but, had he lived, he would have given the same account of all the 
 subsequent generations of all the Heraclidie. 
 
35 
 
 When Piaggi, the inventor of the process, which I 
 have more circumstantially described in my former 
 Letter, had, together with his scholar, Vincenzo 
 Merli, unrolled a page, or any tolerable series of 
 characters, in any fragment, they submitted, in 
 either case, whatever they had gained, to Maz- 
 zochi, who applied himself most successfully to 
 the elucidation of it. The first manuscript they 
 opened had the title of the work, and the name 
 of the author, at the end,*' that is, upon the 
 most interior part of the roll. The work, as the 
 title imported, was upon musick, the name of 
 the author Philodemus. 
 
 * This title, and name, have been situated in the same part of all 
 the manuscripts, hitherto opened, except in two instances : — one instance 
 is that of the fac simile manuscript, or volume, which faces page 31 of 
 this Letter : — the other is that of which I have made a memorandum at 
 the bottom of the same fac simile. The import of the superscription 
 in the fac simile is clear, as to the arithmetical cyphers, such as XXX 
 (viz.) 3000, which, as they are stated to that effect in other manuscripts, 
 most probably denote the number of lines only ; and, therefore, the other 
 
 F 2 
 
36 
 
 Perhaps it may not be thought totally unin- 
 teresting, should I lay before your Royal High- 
 ness a view of some specimens of titles, and 
 names, and other final inscriptions from those 
 “ Papiri,” which were opened under my direction. 
 
 At the end of the manuscript. No. 1042, 
 which Camillo Paderni began to unroll 23d 
 January, 1802, and finished 22d March in the 
 
 same year, there are, 
 
 slhKovPov 
 TlePi OfCewC 
 to, 
 
 In Number 1423. 
 
 OiAoAHMoy 
 risPt PHToPiKIlC 
 A 
 
 TwN siC A vo To ITPoTsPoN 
 
 part of the superscription may, not improbably, denote the subject. In 
 the other manuscript, the characters AoAHMo 
 
 . . Pi . . T o . • . . 
 
 are the remains of (&iAoJri[AOV TIspi Pl/)TopiK/l( ? *• e • both the name of 
 the writer, and title of his subjeet. 
 
37 
 
 In Number 208. 
 
 KojAwT ov 
 
 nPoC ToN IIA a 1 . i .* 
 NoC A . C i . i 
 In Number 336 . f 
 
 IToAuCTPaTon TlsPi 
 xAorov KctTaOPoNH 
 CsojC OiA sII<rPa3>oy 
 C<N nPoC TouC aAor&jC 
 KaT a ©PaCuNoMgNouC 
 TwN sN ToiC rioAAo/C 
 AoHaZoMgNwN 
 
 In Number 1027. 
 
 KaPNgtCKou 
 
 <3hA(CTa 
 
 B 
 
 AP(0 XXX HH AAA H CsA 
 
 * These dots are inserted by me to shew, that there is a chasm. 
 
 + This Number was only half of a manuscript, which had been 
 broken into two pieces. Another Number, forming the other half, was 
 fortunately unfolded and copied afterwards. The fac simile copy of this 
 manuscript, which is one of the most perfect, is at Oxford. 
 
38 
 
 In Number 1006. 
 
 AHMHTPjou 
 risPi TiNwN 
 CyZHTHGsNTwN 
 AjatTaN 
 
 In Number 1479. 
 
 • l . . • i^P . . 
 
 Ft . P / . vCeuC 
 KH 
 
 TwN aPXcowN 
 
 In Number 1414. 
 
 4><AoAHMoy 
 IlsPt AsiToy 
 
 KoAAHMaTa 
 CsA . to H 
 
 The above-mentioned Treatise upon Musick 
 was by that Philodemus, whom his cotemporary, 
 Cicero, calls <c Optimum Vimm,” and “ Doctis- 
 simum Hominem.” He was an Epicurean, and 
 
39 
 
 was the author of that Greek Epigram, to which 
 Horace alludes in 
 
 44 Gallis hanc, Philodemus ait.” 
 
 Upon the characters and title of this controver- 
 sial Treatise, which is written against musick, 
 and against its advocate, (one Diogenes, a learned 
 Stoick) Winckelman has made remarks, much 
 less interesting than might have been expected 
 from his great talents, his experience, his know- 
 ledge, and his taste ; nor could his remarks, if 
 otherwise equal to his high reputation, have been 
 very copious, and extensive. Every foreigner, 
 before the mission, with which I was honoured 
 by your Royal Highness, had, from the jealous 
 vigilance, and restriction of the Neapolitan Go- 
 vernment, much difficulty in obtaining access to 
 any means of information, and very little exercise 
 even of his sight, upon the Herculaneum manu- 
 scripts. However, in this, as in every other case, 
 every thing, which is written by Winckelman, 
 
40 
 
 must undoubtedly possess some claim to our at- 
 tention. Mazzochi prepared this Treatise of Phi- 
 lodemus for publication, with much learning, yet 
 with too redundant a display of quotation, of 
 comment, and of criticism. Some supplements, 
 which he has inserted, are inadmissible, because 
 they are not commensurate with the vacant 
 space; but this publication was prevented by 
 the state of total idiotism, which came upon him 
 in a very advanced period of his life. At last, 
 the death of this very respectable scholar, added 
 to the previous relinquishment of the crown of 
 the two Sicilies for that of Spain, by Charles III. 
 served most effectually to deaden the efforts of, 
 and by degrees to annihilate, the Herculaneum 
 Society. 
 
 The Marquis Caraccioli revived this Society 
 in 1787, and appointed Charles Rosini, the pre- 
 sent Bishop of Puzzuolo, to direct all the busi- 
 ness of the “ Papin,” which, during the idiotism 
 
41 
 
 of Mazzochi, and still more after his death, were 
 much neglected by Piaggi. Rosini had been 
 under the patronage, and in the favour of Maz- 
 zochi, from whom he obtained the possession of 
 the Treatise upon Musick, most fully prepared 
 for editing. This was superbly edited, in 1790, 
 by Rosini himself, who, without the contribution 
 of one solitary word, except his own name, 
 assumed to himself the whole merit of his bene- 
 factor. It may not be improper to mention, 
 that General .Acton, as Prime IY1 mister, advised 
 me not to have any intercourse with Rosini, 
 because, in the first revolution of Naples, he 
 had remained upon his Bishoprick of Puzzuolo, 
 and had delivered a pastoral discourse in favour 
 of the Jacobin Usurpation. In subjoining, that 
 he has again served Joseph Buonaparte, and is 
 still serving Murat, in the employment which I 
 held there under your Royal Highness, I have 
 no view whatever, but that of explaining, most 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 - 
 
 satisfactorily, why, during all the time 1 was 
 employed at Naples, this Bishop, instead of 
 assisting me, did every thing in his power to 
 thwart, and counteract all my proceedings. In 
 fact, with such political notions, added to the 
 prejudices of a bigoted Papist against a foreign 
 Heretick, he could not well have supported 
 towards me any other line of conduct, than what 
 I invariably experienced. For the same reasons. 
 Colonel La Vega, the Keeper of the Royal 
 Museum, rivalling in every respect his prede- 
 cessor, the Spaniard, never failed to observe 
 the same deportment. The first, for the pur- 
 pose of frustrating my intentions, although 
 sanctioned by his Majesty’s Minister, the Right 
 Honourable Sir William Drummond, to publish 
 the fragments of several books of Epicurus de 
 Rerum Natura, which I had discovered, espe- 
 cially as they seemed to excite much interest 
 in the world, kept in his own hands the fac 
 
43 
 
 simile copies, nearly all the time I remained at 
 Naples, under various pretexts ; and at last, 
 jointly with the brother of the Colonel, who was 
 dead, and with the unexpected connivance of 
 the Court, deprived your Royal Highness of the 
 valuable engraved fac simile copies of three books 
 and an half of that Philosopher. These engrav- 
 ings, consequently, are now in possession of the 
 existing Government at Naples. One circum- 
 stance, in particular, ought not to be concealed 
 from your Royal Highness ; — it is this : — I have 
 already said, that Mazzochi had prepared for 
 publication, as it is now printed, the Treatise of 
 Philodemus upon Musick, which the Bishop 
 edited in his own name ; I say more, the Bishop 
 was not capable of publishing it in its present 
 form. In a copy of a Treatise ,'’' 1 risp; < mnfienwt 
 
 * That copy is now at Oxford ; but it had been revised, and again 
 
 corrected by me. 
 
 G 2 
 
44 
 
 mfisiuttw, which he undertook to correct, he left, 
 or made, even thirty- two errors in a single 
 column. Could such a corrector of a copy be 
 the learned publisher of a book ? What I have 
 here said, I persuade myself, will not be deemed 
 either to be “ extenuated, or set down in 
 malice,” or foreign to, or unconnected with, the 
 nature and the interests of my Herculaneum 
 mission ; more particularly, if it should be con- 
 sidered, that these men were, nominally at least, 
 associated with me in the prosecution of the 
 objects of that mission. Besides these persons, 
 the Neapolitan Court gave another companion, 
 who really and sincerely assisted me. Your 
 Royal Highness, I trust, will permit me to seize 
 this occasion of expressing for this old man, who 
 was a Basil ian Abbot, and whose name was Foti, 
 my sentiments of esteem and friendship. He was 
 the best Greek scholar, with whom I ever met in 
 Naples, or in Sicily. With the most unpreju- 
 
45 
 
 diced candour he co-operated with me, as far as 
 could be expected from heart-felt zeal, and much 
 unaffected knowledge. Continually he paid the 
 tribute of his warm encomiums to the disin- 
 terested, munificent, and princely motives which 
 influenced the Royal Patron of the undertaking. 
 In a word, with truth I speak of him, as 
 “ Animam, qualem neque candidiorem 
 
 Terra tulit, nec cui me sit devinctior alter.” 
 Before the commencement of my labours in 
 1802, there had been opened, during more than 
 forty years, only eighteen manuscripts. Of what 
 materials their substance was formed, I have 
 already mentioned. The process, or mode of 
 opening them, has been described in my first 
 Letter. The points, at which the 4 4 papyrace- 
 ous” sheets were fastened together by a cement 
 or gum, are often visible. I should conceive, that 
 the longest roll, composed of these cemented 
 sheets, could not have exceeded, in any instance. 
 
46 
 
 forty feet, and no sheet could have been longer 
 than three feet, or thereabouts ; the breadth of 
 the sheet, as it must naturally suggest itself, 
 must constitute the length of each roll, which, 
 taking all the manuscripts one with another, is 
 a varying measure from somewhat less than a 
 palm to something, but very little, more than a 
 foot. In writing, the ancients placed the length 
 of the roll horizontally, and the breadth was 
 perpendicularly divided into columns, as they 
 are called, or pages, with a varying interval 
 between each, sometimes of more, sometimes of 
 less, than an inch. When the whole mass was 
 folded into a volume, or roll, (of which there is 
 a fac simile at page 31) they began to fold it at 
 the end. Hence, as I have observed before, the 
 name of the writer and title of the work have 
 hitherto, except in two instances, been found in 
 the innermost part of the manuscript. Very incon- 
 siderable pieces of the stick with “ umbilici,” or 
 
47 
 
 rollers, round which the folds were made, and of 
 its heads, have been found in very rare instances; 
 but in each instance they are either pulverized, 
 or reduced to a black, and friable coal. The 
 colour of the volumes is extremely different, one 
 from the other, in shades of a tawny, a deep or 
 dark brown, and black, to that of the darkest 
 charcoal. Of the latter are those of Philodemus, 
 already unrolled; and all the Greek manuscripts, 
 indeed, are of a blacker shade than the Latin, 
 which are of the first. The inference from this 
 respective state of colour in the different manu- 
 scripts, must naturally be, that they were found 
 in two different rooms ; one of these rooms must 
 have been less affected than the other, by the 
 heat of the volcanick matter. But the less any 
 manuscript has been affected by that heat, the 
 more difficulty has been always encountered in 
 opening it, for the reason which I have assigned 
 in my first Letter. It is remarkable, that all the 
 
48 
 
 Latin manuscripts, which I have attempted to 
 unroll, have been of a tawny, or brown colour ; 
 and, therefore, one of them (which is the fragment 
 of a Latin poem before-mentioned) was opened 
 with great difficulty. Another produced only 
 unconnected scraps of broken pages, or columns, 
 in a state the more to he lamented, as, from 
 some common words, as well as Roman proper 
 names, it might be concluded to be something 
 historical. Of others, it was found totally im- 
 practicable to separate the substance, even in the 
 smallest portions. All these, consequently, must 
 have been lodged in one of the two rooms, dif- 
 ferent from that in which those of Philodemus 
 and the Greek writers were kept. 
 
 The only mode of selecting a manuscript 
 from the Royal Museum for developement, was 
 very simple, but not always effectual ; yet, at 
 the same time, whenever the small brush, which 
 they wetted and applied, in this case, to the 
 
49 
 
 outside surface of a manuscript, caused the 
 exterior fold to raise itself singly in a detached 
 state from the next under it, that manuscript, 
 most completely justified the experiment, how- 
 ever simple, by a more entire separation of each 
 fold in the volume, especially from the middle 
 part, even to the end, and by a more entire 
 preservation of letters, both in form and in 
 colour. 
 
 So many persons of erudition, and good 
 sense, Russians, Germans, Swedes, Greeks, Spa- 
 niards, French, Italians, and even English, said 
 so much of chymical experiments, as likely to 
 contribute to the greater and more productive 
 facility of unfolding the most conglutinated 
 masses of these manuscripts, that I yielded, con- 
 trary to my own sentiments, to their representa- 
 tions. These sentiments were founded upon 
 hourly observation of the variously affected sub- 
 stance of several manuscripts. That observation 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 was directed to the nature of their substance, 
 and to the nature of those materials, which had 
 brought them to their present state ; but as it 
 was my duty not even to appear to neglect any 
 means by which, it was so generally supposed, 
 the undertaking might be forwarded, I thought, 
 
 non tarn 
 
 Turpe fuit vinci, quam contendisse decorum. 
 
 Mr. Poli, one of those who were employed 
 in the tuition of the Hereditary Prince, a man 
 well known in the philosophical world, and Pre- 
 sident of the Military Academy, recommended 
 to me one Gaetano la Pira, as an excellent cliy- 
 mist, both in theory, and in experiment. This 
 gentleman wrote his Proposal, together with 
 his data. Broken pieces of several of the more 
 impaired manuscripts, classed according to their 
 respective defects, were set apart by my order 
 for his inspection. After considering, during 
 some time, and in detail, their defects, after 
 
51 
 
 having been permitted by me to make other 
 various unsuccessful attempts, at last, without 
 convincing me by any single argument, which he 
 adduced, he was permitted to try vegetable gas. 
 The greatest part of each mass flew, under this 
 trial, into useless atoms; besides, not a character 
 was to be discovered upon any single piece. The 
 dreadful odour drove us all from the Museum. 
 This, in fact, is a part of the royal palace, which, 
 it the court had been there, must, also, have 
 been precipitately abandoned. 
 
 After these experiments, I had the satisfac- 
 tion of continuing, with a safer conscience, the 
 process, which I have described in my first 
 Letter. — This, in a second corrected edition, is 
 subjoined to the present Letter. — Piaggi, the 
 Inventor, was no more. Vincenzo Merli was 
 justly discarded for certain revolutionary practises. 
 There were, luckily for me, three other men, 
 Malesci, Casanova, and Lentari, who had been 
 
 h 2 
 
52 
 
 employed with Piaggi, and Vincenso Merli, in 
 unfolding the 44 Papin.” These men were en- 
 gaged by me, not only themselves to unfold, but 
 also to teach and to direct ten others, whom 
 I, at different intervals, additionally took into this 
 service. Two of these men, Giuseppe Casanova, 
 and Carlo Orazj, both of them skilled in the art 
 of design , were exclusively confined to the occu- 
 pation of copying, in fac simile , the characters of 
 each fragment, or column, which I consigned to 
 them for that purpose. 
 
 Each of these men received from me a sum 
 of monthly salary, quite inadequate to their 
 respective support. The compensation for this 
 deficiency depended upon their own exertions, 
 because, both the unfolder and copyist of any 
 fragment, or column, received from me a pre- 
 mium of one carlini for each line, after it had 
 been copied in fac simile , with approved exact- 
 ness. It will, I hope, appear to your Royal 
 
53 
 
 Highness, that such an arrangement of pay was 
 not ill calculated to secure the utmost diligence, 
 and most attentive carefulness, both in the un- 
 folder, and in the transcriber. The unfolder was 
 obliged, for his own interest, to keep perpetually 
 in view the necessity of unfolding for the fac 
 simile transcriber as many, and as perfect lines, 
 as he could, in order that he might receive a 
 greater share of reward. For the same reason, 
 the transcriber became an useful spy for me upon 
 the unfolder, of whose ignorance, or inattention, 
 or prejudicial violence in unfolding, he would, 
 for his own sake, inform me ; at the same time 
 that h?s zeal , and his accuracy in transcribing, 
 were objects of jealous scrutiny to the unfolder, 
 and were stimulated thereto by the future acqui- 
 sition of correspondent recompence. In a word, 
 he who unfolded, and he who copied, while 
 each, for his own sake, took all possible pains, 
 
 most advantageously checked, and animated each 
 other. 
 
54 
 
 This mode of payment, which I adopted, I 
 would humbly beg permission to exhibit in the 
 following specimens. These are ex ti acted from 
 the uninterrupted Journal, which I used to keep, 
 of every proceeding, whether my own, or that of 
 others under my direction, as well as of every oc- 
 currence relative to the manuscripts in the Royal 
 
 Museum at Tortici. 
 
 44 Expences. 
 
 44 Saturday, April 30th, 1803. 
 
 “ lo qui sotto dichiaro di aver ricevuto questo 
 trentesimo di di Avrile, 1803, la somma di 
 cinque ducati quarent’ otto grana per le spese di 
 pelle di battiloro, di carta per disegnare, di gom- 
 
 ma, di Lapis, e di galesse, dico 
 
 44 Gio. Batta Malesci.” 
 
 44 Monthly Pay. 
 
 44 Saturday , April 30th, 1803. 
 
 44 Noi qui sotto dichiriamo di aver ricevuto 
 questo trentesimo di di Avrile, 1803, i nostri 
 
55 
 
 soldi rispettivi per tutto questo mese spirante, 
 diciamo. 
 
 Gio. Batta Casanova, Vincenzo Catalano, 
 
 Francesco Casanova, Giachino Marinaro.” 
 Gennaro Braibanti, 
 
 * This man, the oldest, the most experienced, and most expert, in 
 unfolding and copying, had twenty-two ducats monthly salary ; the next, 
 Gennaro Casanova, eighteen ditto. The others in proportion, some ten 
 ducats, others, at first, six only. Alessandro Paderni, the Under-keeper of 
 the Museum, was necessarily in constant attendance, upon account of this 
 very work. As he could have no premium, he received the monthly sum 
 of fifteen ducats. The three Porters, much smaller sums, in respective 
 gradation. 
 
 f These thirteen persons were Unfolders, or Transcribers, and the 
 remaining names are those of the Under-keeper of the Museum, and of 
 three Porters. 
 
 “ Gio. Batta Malesci.* 
 66 Gennaro Casanova. 
 
 Antonio Lentari, 
 Camillo Paderni, 
 Giuseppe Casanova, 
 Carlo Orazj, 
 
 Francesco Paderni, 
 Corazza, 
 Catalano,t 
 Alessandro Paderni, 
 
 Giuseppe Paderni, Saverio Galassi, 
 
56 
 
 44 Premiums. 
 
 44 Friday, May Q7th, 1803. 
 
 44 Noi sotto dichiriamo d’aver ricevuto dall’ 
 lllmo Sigr. D. Giovanni Hay ter, per lo svolgi- 
 mento, assistenza, e trascrizione de’ Papiri le 
 somme qui appresso notate, il di 27 Maggio, 1803. 
 
 44 lo Geo. Batta Malesci per assistenza alio 
 svolgimento de’ Papiri, No. 207, 218, 1385, du- 
 cati 22, grana 40. 
 
 44 lo Gennaro Casanova per Y assistenza alio 
 svolgimento de 5 Papiri 994, 1056, 1428, ducati 
 17. 30. 
 
 ‘ 4 lo Antonio Lentari ho ricevuto per lo 
 svolgimento del Papiro 1056, ducati ondici 
 
 11 . 00 , 
 
 44 lo Guiseppe Casanova per la trascrizione 
 de’ Papiri 994, 1056, e 1428, e per cinque Alfa- 
 beti,* ducati 35. 90. 
 
 
 * Forty well-executed fac simile alphabets of different Greek ma- 
 nuscripts, and one of the fragment of a Latin poem, were finished, when 
 
57 
 
 “ Io Carlo Orazj per trascrizioni de Papiri 
 207, 218, 1385, e per tre alfabeti, ducati venti 
 tre 23. 00. 
 
 “ Io Camillo Paderni per lo svolgimento del 
 Papiro, No. 994, ho ricevuto, ducati trenta, 
 30. 00. 
 
 44 Io Gio. Batta Casanova per lo svolgimento 
 del Papiro, 218, ducati 7. 30. 
 
 66 Io Francesco Casanova ho ricevuto per lo 
 svolgimento de Papiri, 207, 1385, ducati 9. 10. 
 
 “ Io Giuseppe Paderni per lo svolgimento 
 del Papiro, 1428, ho ricevuto, ducati 1. 30.” 
 
 In this extract, relative to premiums, there 
 are not the names of some unfolders, which 
 
 the approach of the French made it necessary for me to leave Naples, in 
 February, 180S. Of these the copper-plate engravings are at Oxford. It 
 gave me infinite satisfaction to hear Lord Grenville observe, that these 
 alphabets are extremely valuable. 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 appear in the extract of monthly pay. All, 
 consequently, had not merited them. From the 
 most rigorous distribution of them I never, in 
 one instance, deviated. 
 
 The following are extracts relative to the 
 “ Papiri” themselves. 
 
 <e Tuesday, Q&d October, 1805. 
 
 “ The <e Papiro,” No. 300, which had been 
 consigned to Don Gennaro Braibanti, was 
 finished without title or name. 
 
 <e The same day, the “ Papiro,” No. 985, 
 which had been consigned to Don Antonio Len- 
 tari, was relinquished, as impracticable. 
 
 “ The same day, two other “ Papiri” were 
 chosen. No. 1001 was consigned to Don Anto- 
 nio Lentari ; No. 816 to Don Gennaro Braibanti. 
 
 “ The same day, the “ Papiro,” No. 1057, 
 which had been consigned to Don Francesco 
 Paderni, was finished without name or title. 
 
 “ The same day, another “ Papiro,” No. 
 
59 
 
 988, was chosen, and consigned to the said Don 
 Francesco Paderni.” 
 
 “ Monday , November 2Qth, 1805. 
 
 The <c Papiro,”* No. 817, which had 
 been consigned to Don Camillo Paderni, was 
 finished. There was no name, or title, at the 
 end. It was the fragment of a Latin poem. 
 Many entire verses in series were found. The 
 poem appears to be historical. It speaks of 
 Alexandria, iEgypt, Caesar, the Battle of Ac- 
 tium, a Siege, the Queen, &c. 
 
 “ The same day, another 44 Papiro,” No. 
 
 * The copper- plale fac simile copy of this “ Papiro” is now at 
 Oxford. What an immense price, indeed, the Pere Montfaucon, whose 
 grand aim in his itinerant researches, was to find in some book a specimen 
 of ancient Latin orthography, would have set upon this fragment! In fact, 
 the Chevalier Seratti, then Secretary of State for “ Case Reali,” when I 
 communicated to him the discovery of this Latin fragment, exclaimed, 
 with much rapture, that this discovery Was Worth all my pains, and all the 
 expence of our Government. 
 
 I 2 
 
 \ 
 
60 
 
 831, was chosen, and consigned to the same Don 
 Camillo Paderni.” 
 
 With the pecuniary disbursements in this 
 undertaking, as my employment was literary, I 
 was totally unconnected. Yet, as his Majesty’s 
 Minister, who was then the Right Honourable 
 Sir William Drummond, thought the payment 
 of the persons employed would be, on account 
 of my local advantage, more convenient to me 
 than to himself, or any one attached to his mis- 
 sion, he directed me to undertake that payment. 
 With his directions I more readily complied, 
 because I was justly prompted to do it by the 
 most grateful esteem, and respect for him, as a 
 most sincere friend, as a gentleman of distin- 
 guished birth, manners, talents, erudition, and 
 taste, as an amiable and most excellent man, 
 who, with the sense, and the expression of most 
 
61 
 
 loyal duty to the Royal Patron of my employ- 
 ment, promoted it invariably, and effectually, 
 with all the influence of his official situation, and 
 all the warmth of personal concern, and zeal. 
 These motives, I trust, will justify me to your 
 Royal Highness for having added to my super- 
 intendency of the Herculaneum manuscripts, 
 that of the payment of money, issued by Go- 
 vernment to his Majesty’s Minister, as far as it 
 was assigned to the persons placed by him under 
 my direction. Hence it was, that, in order not 
 to appear disobliging, or disrespectful, to his 
 Majesty’s Charge d’ Affaires, William A’Court, 
 Esq. before the arrival of Hugh Elliot, Esq. 
 the successor of Sir William Drummond, nor 
 afterwards to Mr. Elliot himself, I continued to 
 superintend those payments at the Royal Mu- 
 seum at Portici. Thus, what I little foresaw, I 
 became a sub -accountant to the Lords Commis- 
 sioners of his Majesty’s Treasury, who have 
 

 lately, through George Harrison, Esq. examined 
 all my accounts of Government money, as em- 
 ployed about these manuscripts. These accounts 
 were, in a manner very honourable to me, ap- 
 proved by that gentleman, and afterwards 
 allowed, and sanctioned, by tbe Lords Commis- 
 sioners of his Majesty’s Treasury. 
 
 When, in the unrolling any manuscript, a 
 piece reached the top of the machine, from 
 which it was suspended,* such part was then cut 
 off from the manuscript, and placed, and fas- 
 tened by pins, upon a frame of adequate size. 
 If the contents of this piece, which most gene- 
 rally consisted of four columns, appeared to have 
 a series of characters worth the pains, and the 
 expence of copying, I consigned it to one of the 
 two copyists, as soon as he was disengaged from 
 transcribing any other manuscript, or any piece 
 of the same manuscript. 
 
 * I must again refer to the first Letter. 
 
63 
 
 At the time I consigned any piece, and, 
 again, after it was copied, I examined the surface 
 of the respective columns with the utmost care. 
 The copyist, and the unfolder, examined it with 
 me, and after me. The fact was, that frequently, 
 but particularly in the outward folds of each ma- 
 nuscript more than in the innermost, but some- 
 times in both, some particles, or even consider- 
 able parts, of the preceding column, or columns, 
 adhered to the subsequent. This circumstance 
 was occasioned by the various injuries, which, as 
 before stated, the manuscript might have re- 
 ceived, or by the nature of its substance, so liable 
 to conglutination in its several folds. Nor was 
 this examination always successful ; each fold, 
 or part, of a manuscript, was at times so un- 
 substantially subtle, that the eye, with the 
 assistance of the best glasses, which were always 
 employed in this case, could not discern, with 
 the closest attention, whether the surface of the 
 

 fold, or piece, were identically single, or whether 
 it had combined in itself, and received from any 
 other preceding, and sometimes subsequent, 
 pieces, some letters, or even words, or lines : 
 
 Non bene junctor um discordia semina rerum. 
 
 If I might be permitted, I would here exem- 
 plify to your Royal Highness this most trouble- 
 some part of my employment. 
 
 The first piece of the eleventh book of 
 Epicurus, which, to repeated view, and minute 
 observation, exhibited the appearance of a 
 tolerably entire, and individual column, was 
 copied, as such. As in every other instance, 
 where any part of a manuscript had been copied, 
 so in this, I first collated the copy with the dark 
 original, letter for letter. Then I began, with 
 all possible attention, mixed, however, with 
 extreme distrust, both of myself, and of the 
 thing itself, to attempt the interpretation. In 
 the different columns of every manuscript, the 
 
65 
 
 most perfectly unrolled, there have been always 
 found wanting many letters, often a word, or, 
 more rarely, a whole sentence, or whole sen- 
 tences, respectively.* For the just interpre- 
 tation, it was impossible, it would at least have 
 been unjustifiable, to have proceeded otherwise, 
 than I invariably used to do in the case of each 
 “ Lacuna.” Its dimensions I exactly ascertained 
 by an accurate, often retraced, mensuration. 
 This rigid mensuration was then applied by me 
 in the same manner, and agreeably to the form, 
 under which that same manuscript presented 
 every given character, to as many characters as. 
 
 * A gentleman of distinction, to whom I was shewing the fragment 
 of an exterior fold of the Latin Poem, before-mentioned, saw one single 
 word, which was “ nihil.” This circumstance, which was naturally 
 mentioned by him in society, gained a wide circulation; and thus, as I 
 informed the learned Editor of the Classical Journal, reached the ingenious 
 writer of an article in a late Number of that Journal. “ Nihil ” seems 
 applied by him to my whole undertaking. 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 conjecturally, and consistently with the supposed 
 sense of the context, I wished to replace in that 
 “ Lacuna.” When I was entirely satisfied, that 
 these mensurations were accurate, and that the 
 conjectural letters, thus supplied, expressed the 
 very sense of the author, or, at least, some not 
 inapplicable sense, the copyist was ordered by me 
 to make a partial fac simile of that 44 Lacuna,” and 
 of the letter, which immediately came before it, 
 and, also, of the letter, which immediately came 
 after it, and, then, make in the 44 Lacuna” itself a 
 fac simile transcript of each character, which had 
 been supplied, in strict conformity to the usual 
 distances between the respective letters in the 
 same manuscript. When this whole process, 
 admitted, 44 modulo, ac pede,” and in aptest cor- 
 respondence, my substituted, or supplied, cha- 
 racters, I wrote them, in my own interpreted 
 copy of that manuscript with red ink, in order 
 to distinguish them from the actually existing 
 
07 
 
 characters of the original. After having gone 
 through this process in the quoted instance of 
 the first piece of the above-mentioned eleventh 
 book of Epicurus, after having repeated several 
 times this process, in consequence of the altera- 
 tion which, the surface, by the detachment and 
 loss of several of its particles, repeatedly exhi- 
 bited, I found, that after this repeated process, 
 and the laboured, tormenting, and most unsatis- 
 factory supplemental conjectures of a month, 
 both in the Museum and at home, as well for the 
 vacant letters, as for the sense, my whole inter- 
 pretation was necessarily wrong. This piece, 
 which was supposed to form one column, was at 
 last discovered to consist of two halves, one of 
 which really belonged to the situation, which it 
 occupied, the other, to a preceding column. Of 
 the violent transposition of characters by the 
 same transposition of particles, in the same 
 
 * K 2 
 
68 
 
 column, an example is afforded in the following 
 extract from my Journal : 
 
 “ Wednesday , Qth February , 1805. 
 
 <c The “ Papiro,” No. 26, which had been 
 consigned to Don Antonio Lentari, was finished, 
 and at the end were the characters, 
 
 <e * Au <1 Ho . MoC 
 
 Is P TsC is . . . wN ” 
 
 In collating a transcript with the original in 
 the Royal Museum, which contains a numerous 
 range of apartments, I was frequently obliged, 
 for the purpose of securing the distinct percep- 
 tion of the real character, to pass from one 
 apartment to another of a different aspect. 
 Nothing but a varied light, in many instances, 
 and in spite of good glasses, and good eyes, 
 could secure that perception. 
 
 What I have remarked* relative to books 
 
 * Page 26 of this Letter. 
 
69 
 
 transcribed for publick use, is confirmed by these 
 manuscripts. The vowels, except the H, and 
 sometimes the l) , are never capitals ; the conso- 
 nants always. In the Latin manuscript there is 
 a full stop between each word ; in the Greek 
 manuscripts no stop of any description between 
 words and sentences. Sections, or paragraphs, 
 are distinguished, in some instances, by a mark, 
 or by the intervention of a vacant space, or by 
 both, and, also, in others, numerically. Each 
 line is promiscuously closed ; its end is never 
 denoted by the end of a syllable. Even an end 
 of a column itself is not syllabically distinguished 
 from the beginning of another. Both in lines 
 
 and in columns, these manuscripts shew, that the 
 
 • 
 
 ancients would never spell in their orthographical 
 arrangements. 
 
 Accents have not been discovered, hitherto, 
 in any manuscript, except upon the long 
 
70 
 
 syllables of the Latin poem all these accents 
 are acute. What a just trophy to the memory 
 of that excellent scholar, the late Dr. Foster, of 
 Eton, under whom I received my education, and, 
 in the course of it, much undeserved favour, have 
 I been the means of raising, with heartfelt 
 satisfaction, and most thankful triumph, while I 
 developed these manuscripts. He had, in his 
 Essay, convinced, I believe, literary men in 
 general, that, at least, his opponents were in the 
 wrong, with regard to the date, and use of the 
 Greek accentual marks. These manuscripts, which 
 are of the remotest authenticity in the world, have, 
 undeniably, proved, that he was in the right. 
 
 It may not be improper to mention here, 
 one or two orthographical singularities in these 
 manuscripts. In the first place, a long iota, as 
 we write it single (e. g .) in rp</3», &c. is in them 
 
 * As I have said, p. 28. 
 
 i 
 
71 
 
 written as the diphthong si. The same verb still 
 retains this diphthong in those tenses where the 
 iota would be long by position ; e. g. EmTpsi-^sisv. 
 The iota subscript in them, as in ancient inscrip- 
 tions, is not as it means, and as it is now written 
 and printed, under the vowel, but always after it. 
 Where a verse occurs, and in the case where a 
 long vowel before a short one forms a short second 
 syllable, as now printed and written, that it may 
 constitute a dactyl foot, that dactyl here becomes 
 a spondee. The third syllable, or short vowel, is 
 totally omitted, i. e. immersed in the preceding 
 long vowel. For instance, the Treatise upon 
 Death'* was, by Lord Grenville himself, perused 
 
 * Of this elegant, interesting Greek Treatise, and of the fragment of 
 the Latin Poem, the engraved fac simile copies are now at Oxford. The 
 copper-plates, which were left at Palermo by one of the King’s Messen- 
 gers, to the care of Mr. Abraham Gibbs, are now, it is said, on board of 
 his Majesty’s Ship, Warrior. This ship, it is said, is on its passage home, 
 if, indeed, it be not yet arrived. 
 
72 
 
 lately, with all the critical judgment, philology, 
 and attention, of a real scholar, both in the 
 original, and in my interpreted supplied copy, 
 where I had inserted in red ink an s, in the 
 following passage. His Lordship, at the time, 
 justly remarked to me, that, in the original pas- 
 sage, no vacant space, or any other indication, 
 proved the want, or the loss of an s : that the 
 quotation, as it thus stood in the original, 
 namely, 
 
 TPo;HN evFeiH 
 
 legitimately shewed, what the ancient pure 
 orthography was : that the modern intrusion of 
 s, and, in similar instances , the extension of the 
 spondee into a dactyl, to avoid this orthogra- 
 phical crasis, was, therefore, contrary to classical 
 rule, in all the editions of Homer, and of any 
 other Greek poet, edited by the moderns. 
 
 The sigma, in all the manuscripts, has the 
 figure, its most ancient figure, which it always 
 
73 
 
 had, except in the Dorick Colonies, of our C. 
 It deserves our notice, that in the Latin frag- 
 ment, that syntax, to which we pay the most 
 religious attention, is not exemplified. If a boy 
 at Eton, or at any other school, had written, 
 Simul terrestribus armis , 
 
 as it is found in that fragment, instead of, simul 
 cum terrestribus armis, would he not have been 
 deemed to have violated the rules of good gram- 
 mar, through ignorance, or through neglect? 
 
 These specimens are competent to prove to 
 your Royal Highness, that the orthography of 
 grammar, and of writing, has varied in more 
 modern times, and also at - present, from the 
 genuine Greek, and Latin standard of classical 
 antiquity. But upon this subject I have expa- 
 tiated at considerable length, in a Dissertation, 
 which I have prepared, as a requisite Preface to 
 any Herculaneum Manuscript, of which the 
 
 L 
 
74 
 
 learned University of Oxford may direct me to 
 superintend the publication. 
 
 Not only the name of the writer, and the 
 bare title of the work, have been discovered at 
 the end of a manuscript, but sometimes there 
 has been found a more detailed title of the work, 
 as in No. 33(3.* Frequently I met with the 
 number of the volume of the work. This was 
 denoted by letters, as was universally the 
 practice among the Greeks. For instance, <a, 
 i. e. eleven, in Number 1042.*f- In Number 
 10 27,£ the number of lines is said to be, as 
 expressed by letters, 3238. In Number 141 4,| 
 not only the lines, but, also, the KoAA^aTa, or 
 fastenings with cement, (i. e. pieces joined toge- 
 ther) are mentioned. Of the former, the number, 
 at least the first numeral, or, perhaps, two prior 
 numerals, obliteration has made imperfect. Of 
 
 * Page 37- 
 
 -{■ Page 36. 
 
 t Page 37. 
 
 § Page 38. 
 
75 
 
 the second, the remaining indications are so im- 
 perfect, that I have not attempted to conjecture, 
 or even ventured to insert them. 
 
 In all the specimens of final inscriptions, 
 which are given in pages 37, and 38, I have 
 designedly exhibited all the vowels, except H, as 
 of a size really less than in the original manu- 
 scripts. I thought that I could thus distinguish 
 them better from the consonants, which are all, 
 invariably, capitals. In the greatest part of the 
 original manuscripts, as may be seen by the fac 
 simile copies, the vowels, as they are not capitals, 
 rise not to the height of the consonants, except 
 in Philodemus. In the greatest part of his 
 manuscripts all the vowels rise to the height of 
 the consonants. Hence his omicron appears to 
 be a capital. > 
 
 The dialect of the fragments of the eight 
 books of Epicurus is attick ; that of Polystratus, 
 and Colotes, is so to a certain degree only. The 
 
 L 2 
 
dialect of the Treatise upon Anger, I think, is 
 somewhat attick : the language of that Treatise, 
 in general, is superior to all the rest. 
 
 If one except the Latin Poem, the subjects 
 of all the manuscripts at Oxford are biographical, 
 or physical, or philological, or moral, or theolo- 
 gical. In different places of different works, 
 there are short poetical quotations from lost 
 poets. One quotation from the Odyssey is 
 incalculably precious, because we find, in this 
 quotation, the same language, expression for 
 expression, as in the present editions. The 
 whole of the present text, therefore, of the poet, 
 boasts an authenticity of a very remote period, 
 certainly not less than sixteen hundred and 
 thirty-two years, if an illative argument of this 
 nature may be regarded as of weight in this 
 case, which, as purely accidental, is unquestion- 
 ably freer from cavil, than most other cases. It 
 may be added, with great truth, that all these 
 manuscripts, which 
 
nec ignes , 
 
 Nec poterat ferrum , nec edax cibolere vetustas , 
 even if the consideration of their high antiquity 
 be excluded, even if no value be affixed to 
 them, as the most legitimate criterions of ortho- 
 graphy in the two learned languages, these ma- 
 nuscripts, I must say, are still inestimable, 
 because the compositions, preserved in them, had 
 been supposed to have been irrecoverably lost. 
 
 What immense sums are given by the 
 lovers, and protectors, both of ancient and 
 modern literature, for editions of books, whose 
 authors, although in some instances of the 
 greatest celebrity, yet are most familiarly com- 
 mon. In the stall of the bookseller, in the 
 private collection of many individuals, the sen- 
 tences, or smaller scraps, preserved from the 
 wreck of ancient Greece and Rome, ever com- 
 mand the most partial attention. The most 
 broken chip of Menander would secure any sum 
 
78 
 
 whatsoever, which, however great, yet would 
 scarcely be regarded as an equivalent, from the 
 unsparing hands of the purchaser. Besides, 
 intellectual works are always allowed a more ele- 
 vated rank, than those of manual art, and yet 
 vases and cameos, and other works of great 
 antiquity, and sometimes of suspected antiquity, 
 become, too frequently, an absurdly exorbitant 
 acquisition. Statues are, most undoubtedly, the 
 most valuable among the works of art. In this 
 instance, men of taste submit to the hardest 
 terms of the mercenary antiquarian, so as to 
 obtain possession of an entire, or mutilated, 
 figure, that was formed even in the decline of 
 Greek, and, what is still more, of Roman sta- 
 tuary. In the latter, it is not alone the 
 
 . . Curii jam dimidii, nasoque minores , 
 even the statue of an Augustulus, or one of 
 more recent date, would seem to justify, perhaps, 
 the most unconscientious estimate of a “ vir- 
 
79 
 
 tuoso.” Yet, what should be said of them, in 
 comparison with these manuscripts, the most 
 ancient in the known world ? A fair calcu- 
 lation, deduced from these editions of books, and 
 from those works of manual art, as contrasted 
 with intellectual, enhance the worth of the ma- 
 nuscripts, now at Oxford, beyond the very enor- 
 mous calculations, frequently made to me by very 
 respectable foreigners ! Had they not been a 
 property, so rich in the high renown of your 
 Royal Highness, or, if I may be permitted to 
 descend so far, had they belonged to the person, 
 who was employed in superintending them, 
 under your Royal authority, that person, most 
 certainly, need not have proposed, because there 
 was repeatedly offered almost any sum, which he 
 could have proposed in his own right, for trans- 
 ferring them to others. But the very idea of a 
 pecuniary valuation of these manuscripts, must 
 make every liberal person feel their great intrin- 
 
80 
 
 sick value, by making him feel, that every idea 
 of that nature, at once both debases them, and 
 him, who conceives, and expresses it. 
 
 When your Royal Highness was pleased to 
 appoint me to this literary mission, in the year 
 1800, the Right Honourable Earl Spencer 
 directed the Serapis store ship to convey me to 
 Palermo. But as this ship was obliged to stop at 
 Minorca, the Genereux took me from that island 
 to Genoa, which surrendered to his Majesty’s 
 fleet, and Imperial army, a few days after, I 
 came into that Bay. It is, I hope, not to be 
 regarded by your Royal Highness as too inad- 
 missible among the contents of this Letter to 
 mention, from ocular proof, a strange, and almost 
 incredible example of contempt for literature, 
 and of Gothick, or rather Mahometan, outrage, 
 which some soldiers of the French garrison 
 exhibited in the Archiepiscopal Library of Genoa. 
 From many volumes of valuable works in dif- 
 
81 
 
 ferent languages, and from many other volumes, 
 edited in the most superb manner, and magni- 
 ficently bound, these ruffians had torn many 
 leaves, and parts of leaves, to kindle the tobacco 
 of their pipes. 
 
 Lord Keith, on board the Minotaur, re- 
 ceived me with all the attention, which was due 
 to a servant of your Royal Highness. In his 
 orders to the Captain of the Sicilian corvette, 
 which was dispatched to Palermo to commu- 
 nicate the surrender of Genoa, the noble Lord 
 did me the honour to require for me from the 
 Captain, who received me on board, the same 
 treatment, as would have been expected for 
 himself. It was the middle of June, when I 
 arrived at Palermo. The late Lord Nelson, with 
 her Sicilian Majesty, and the late Sir William, 
 together with Lady Hamilton, had just quitted 
 it. The Right Honourable Sir Arthur Paget, 
 K. B. then his Majesty’s Minister at that 
 
 M 
 
82 
 
 Court, immediately paid all the most attentive 
 deference to your Royal commands, and to the 
 letter, which your Royal Highness yourself had 
 been pleased to condescend to write to him, 
 concerning me, and my mission. General 
 Acton had previously received a duplicate of my 
 dispatches. 
 
 After a week or two, during which I expe- 
 rienced every species of most hospitable, most 
 liberal, and most friendly, treatment from Sir 
 Arthur Paget, at Palermo, the Sicilian frigate, 
 Arethusa, was ordered by the Sicilian Court to 
 convey me to Naples, where Prince Cassaro, 
 after the departure of the French from that 
 capital, was Viceroy, and where the Hercula- 
 neum Manuscripts, the object of my mission, 
 were supposed, by General Acton, to be. 
 
 When I shewed my Credentials, and the 
 Royal Order from Sicily, to the Viceroy, Zurlo, 
 Secretary of State for Case Reali, or Casa Reale, 
 
83 
 
 was present in the apartment. That gentleman, 
 who was a lawyer of ability, with some erudi- 
 tion, informed the astonished Viceroy, that the 
 manuscripts had been during the late disturbances 
 removed to Palermo. This unexpected infor- 
 mation, as it would oblige me to return to Sicily, 
 so it excited my immediate curiosity to enquire 
 more about these <e reliquias Danaum,” the 
 manuscripts, so very little regarded by the Court, 
 that necessarily, as it was altogether unconscious, 
 •where they existed, it must have been equally 
 unconscious, whether they existed. In the course 
 
 a * 
 
 of this enquiry with. Zurlo, and with that La 
 Vega, whom I mentioned before, as Keeper of 
 the Royal Museum, and with others, I fou»d, 
 that the manuscripts had been placed, with the 
 utmost care, in several large chests. In these 
 chests, all the intervals between the respective 
 manuscripts, were separated, one from the other, 
 and were fdled properly, as well as most effectually, 
 
 m 2 f 
 
84 
 
 against the injuries of violent motion, with large 
 quantities of sawdust ; that in this secure state 
 they had been conveyed, at the time the Court 
 retired from Naples, to Palermo. That these 
 et reliquiae Danaum” were presented for reception 
 at the Royal Palace ; there they were disowned, 
 like a pauper of disputed settlement. Then the 
 Overseers conveyed them to the Royal Maga- 
 zines at the Mole There, too, they were 
 regarded as inadmissible vagrants, and sent back 
 to the Palace- In this way, these miserable, un- 
 acknowledged outcasts were passed again to the 
 Magazines, where they luckily gained a settle- 
 ment, because, at last, some Custom-house 
 Officer, by some strange accident, asked a yawn- 
 ing question, or two, about them, and, in conse- 
 quence, yet without knowing what they were, 
 he settled them in a Magazine, because they had 
 been brought from Naples on board the same ship 
 of the line, which had brought their Sicilian 
 Majesties. 
 
85 
 
 After my return to Palermo, Sir Arthur 
 Paget, as soon as he had ascertained the ex- 
 istence, and the locality, of these manuscripts, 
 interfered at the Court, with the most active 
 kindness, and procured a Royal Order for the 
 placing them under my superintendency, and 
 for developing them. 
 
 In June, 1801, just before his departure for 
 Vienna, Sir Arthur Paget was authorized by the 
 present Earl of Liverpool, in an official letter, to 
 advance to me, for carrying into execution the 
 development of the manuscripts, twelve hundred 
 pounds, upon the account of Government. But 
 the Sicilian Court had not yet determined what 
 place in Palermo should be allotted for receiving 
 these manuscripts, and for unfolding them. Sir 
 Arthur Paget, to whom I was under great obli- 
 gations, and for whom I bear most sincere 
 respect, left Palermo, unfortunately, before any 
 thing could be properly arranged in my business. 
 
86 
 
 J his gentleman visited England, before he went 
 to Vienna. 
 
 How can I express the just acknowledg- 
 ments due to Sir Arthur Paget, for his unex- 
 pected goodness in obtaining for me from Lord 
 Sidmouth, then First Lord of his Majesty’s 
 Treasury, a very regular appointment? This he 
 obtained, too, without any previous intimation 
 to any one, that he would do it, and, to my 
 great, and most pleasing surprise, with a retro- 
 spective date, from the day, I left England in 
 April 1800. Some months afterwards, indeed, 
 intelligence of this appointment was communi- 
 cated to me in a letter, which the Right 
 Honourable Mr. Vansittart, then Secretary of 
 the Treasury, did me the honour of writing. 
 This official letter was, in all probability, very 
 different from any official letter, which, either 
 before or since, has been issued from his Ma- 
 jesty’s Treasury, by order of the Lords Com- 
 
87 
 
 missioners. That Right Honourable Gentleman, 
 who is an excellent scholar, did me the great 
 credit of testifying his personal satisfaction in 
 my appointment ; and, in the same letter, was 
 pleased to furnish me with the learned, and most 
 useful means of conjecture relatively to the 
 author of any nameless manuscript, by a 
 laboured, and correct enumeration of the names, 
 and the subjects of ancient writers, whose works 
 have been lost ! It is his unspeakable merit, 
 in this letter, that what he did, he did, ipse 
 quidem volvendis , transeundisque multis admodum 
 voluminibus per omnia semper negotiorum intervalla , 
 in quibus furari otium potuit. 
 
 Robert Waldron, Esq. the private Secretary 
 of the late Minister, was left at Palermo as his 
 Charge d* Affaires. At his representation to the 
 Sicilian Government, some rooms in the Ex- 
 Jesuit College of San Francesco Saverio were 
 prepared for the purpose of unfolding the manu- 
 
88 
 
 scripts. The three persons, whom I before 
 stated, in this letter, to have been employed 
 under Piaggi, were ordered by the Court to 
 come from Naples, and to be under my direction. 
 Many impediments, however, were raised against 
 the completion of this establishment, by one 
 Vivenzo, a King’s Surgeon, who is, perhaps, the 
 most oi[jLovgo? of all men, and said to be better dis- 
 posed to the French, than to his Majesty’s sub- 
 jects. This man, who had secured the other 
 parts of the same college for a military hospital, 
 observed, that he had nothing to do with the 
 Prince of Wales, nor with books ; he cared for 
 neither, and thought it very hard, he said, and 
 very strange, that for them he should be deprived 
 of so much room. 
 
 But from this man, and every other senseless 
 difficulty, I was soon released, by the arrival of 
 Sir William Drummond, his Majesty’s Minister. 
 His very judicious decision was, that, as he 
 
89 
 
 himself, and the Court, would soon go to Naples, 
 these manuscripts should be replaced in their 
 former situation at the Royal Museum of Portici, 
 which was infinitely more suited to the nature 
 of my undertaking, and where he could forward 
 the progress in the most immediate, and most 
 advantageous manner, by his official authority, 
 protection, and interference. In that museum 
 they began to unfold the manuscripts, which had 
 been all safely conveyed thither from Palermo, 
 the 23d of January, 1802. It must naturally 
 be supposed, as the case is, that the most perfect 
 of the manuscripts were those eighteen, which, 
 as I before observed, were unfolded before my 
 arrival. Piaggi, having the choice of all, for his 
 own sake, had selected the most promising. 
 
 General Acton informed me, that M. Al- 
 quier, the Ambassador of France, had urged, 
 and continued incessantly to urge, the claim of 
 his Government upon these Herculaneum manu- 
 
 N 
 
scripts. The flattering attention, which this 
 Ambassador paid me, as elsewhere, so at his 
 own house, for his Majesty had just then con- 
 cluded a peace with France, the high, but 
 merited, compliments, which he took every 
 opportunity of presenting to the name of your 
 Royal Highness in general, and in particular as 
 the Patron of my employment, were at once 
 inconsistent in themselves with his demand upon 
 General Acton, and altogether consistent with the 
 principles of the French revolutionary school. 
 Sir William Drummond took a silent, but most 
 weighty notice of the conduct of M. Alquier, 
 by totally counteracting it. Once, or twice, the 
 Ambassador, with Sir William Drummond, and 
 the Chevalier Souza, the Portuguese Minister, 
 honoured me with their company in the house 
 which his Sicilian Majesty gave me, near the 
 Royal Museum, at a dejeune. 
 
 In my Instructions I was said to be nomi- 
 
91 
 
 nated. as Superintendent on the part of your 
 Royal Highness ; but his Sicilian Majesty made 
 me sole Superintendent, and, also, Academico 
 Ercolanese. 
 
 The late Colonel La Vega, the Keeper of 
 the Museum, Malesci, the principal Unfolder, 
 assisted by the Prelate Rosini, endeavoured to 
 thwart me in every respect, and, in some respects, 
 actually thwarted me. Malesci had been very 
 forward in the first Revolution of Naples, in 
 favour of the enemy.* This trio would repre- 
 sent to each of the individuals, whom I engaged 
 in this service, that I was an Eretico.f It would 
 be irreligious in them to observe me so much as 
 them : that they were not the subjects of his 
 
 * Why this Malesci was not removed from the Museum, as well as 
 Vincenzo Merli, it is difficult to conceive an adequate reason. 
 
 f Vide Page 42. 
 N 2 
 
Majesty, bat of another Sovereign, who looked 
 with an extremely jealous eye upon the foreign 
 stipends, which they received ; that, as to me, I 
 was not of nobilta Inglese, they ought not, there- 
 fore, to respect me, notwithstanding my Royal 
 Commission. This excellent trio, with nume- 
 rous other insinuations, that did equal credit to 
 their head, and to their heart, tried, not always 
 successfully, to mislead the unfolders, and the 
 copyists. It ought to be mentioned, and, I 
 trust, with your Royal approbation, that, when 
 I appointed any one to this service, it was my 
 constant rule, whosoever, and how many soever, 
 the candidates were, to give the preference to 
 the son of any person in the service of the 
 Court, if he were equally as well qualified for 
 the purpose as the rest. 
 
 The before-mentioned Signor Zurlo, Secre- 
 tary of State for the Department, under which 
 the Royal Museum was placed, was ever ready 
 
93 
 
 to comply with any request, and substantially 
 attend to any representations, which, through his 
 Majesty^s Minister, I made at any time to the 
 Government. But within some few months he 
 was replaced by a man of a very different cha- 
 racter, the Chevalier Seratti, much more of 
 whom I shall be obliged to say in a subsequent 
 page of this Letter. 
 
 Sir William Drummond, to my great regret, 
 quitted Naples for Constantinople, in the spring 
 of 1803. In the interval, before his successor, 
 Hugh Elliot, Esq. arrived, Mr. A’Court, Secre- 
 tary of Legation, and Charge d’Affaires, conti- 
 nued the same mode of payment, which had 
 been practised by Sir William Drummond, for 
 the individuals under my superintendency. If 
 my recollection be not erroneous, this gentleman, 
 during some alarm, occasioned by the supposed 
 intention of the French troops to march towards 
 Naples, after the rupture of the peace between 
 
his Majesty and France, expressed himself much 
 disposed to insist, that should Naples be occu- 
 pied by the enemy, I should be permitted to 
 take with me to Sicily the whole of the manu- 
 scripts, both original, and copies. Hugh Elliot, 
 Esq. his Majesty’s new Minister, seemed to en- 
 tertain some doubts, how far, as he had received 
 no particular instructions from Government, rela- 
 tively to the Herculaneum Manuscripts, he was 
 authorised to interfere officially with me, or them. 
 He, therefore, would not put his own signature 
 to a draft upon Government for the expences of 
 the manuscripts ; but directed me to give Messrs. 
 Falconet and Co. the draft in my own name, 
 yet to express in the draft, that I drew it by his 
 order. With this direction I complied ; yet, I 
 must own, I was apprehensive this draft might 
 be deemed by his Majesty’s Government to be 
 some personal presumption, as unofficial. — 
 Besides, I could not divest myself of a firm per- 
 
95 
 
 suasion, that, as I had been commissioned by the 
 
 Heir Apparent himself, and as, also, I enjoyed an 
 
 appointment from, and therefore was in the 
 
 / 
 
 service of, his Majesty’s Government ; and what 
 is more, as even an Act of Parliament had been 
 passed for disbursing the expences of these 
 manuscripts, my application to his Majesty’s 
 Munster for his draft was not entirely without 
 foundation, and could not be taxed with much 
 impropriety 
 
 As at the commencement of the year 1806, 
 it was well known that his Sicilian Majesty in- 
 tended to leave Naples, and that the Queen, 
 and the Royal Family, would also be obliged 
 soon afterwards to leave it, I thought it my duty 
 to solicit the official interposition of his Majesty’s 
 Minister for the removal of the manuscripts, 
 both originals, and copies. The want of instruc- 
 tion from Government for that purpose, I was 
 told, still prevented his official interposition ; at 
 
96 
 
 the same time his Majesty’s Minister directed 
 me to go in his name to the Chevalier Seratti, 
 with a representation of the necessity, there was 
 to remove these objects. This Secretary of 
 State, instead of entering immediately into the 
 subject of my visit, chose, with great violence, 
 and with foaming mouth, and in the most unjus- 
 tifiable terms, to heap upon me, whose mission 
 was certainly not at all political, the most heavy 
 invectives against his Majesty’s forces, which had 
 been landed at Naples. At last, having, in the 
 course of an half hour, most amply vented his 
 rage, he returned, in a softened tone, to the 
 cause of my visit : he assured me, that removal 
 would injure the original “ Papiri,” and was 
 besides not necessary ; “ we shall soon be at 
 Naples again ” 
 
 After the departure of the King, the Here- 
 ditary Prince was Regent of the kingdom. For 
 the same reason, and in the same manner, as his 
 
97 
 
 Majesty’s Minister had not yet received instruc- 
 tions, I was directed to wait upon his Royal 
 Highness, who informed me, that the King, at 
 the time of his departure, in which he was 
 accompanied by the Chevalier Seratti, had given 
 strict orders for not removing the manuscripts. 
 From these orders the Regent could not deviate. 
 It must be confessed, the political character of 
 Chevalier Seratti was generally regarded as not 
 favourable to the interests of Great Britain, but 
 strongly inclining to the French party. What- 
 ever may be the truth, I must have some right 
 to question his good faith, at least, when 
 
 Nec cineri servata Fides 
 
 The Chevalier de' Medici succeeded the 
 Chevalier Seratti in office. The Monday before 
 our flight from Naples, in February, 1806, I was 
 again directed, upon my application to his Ma- 
 jesty’s Minister, who had not yet received his 
 instructions, to go to the new Secretary of State. 
 
 o 
 
98 
 
 The Chevalier, who was not then, it should 
 seem, in the secret, desired I would, in his name, 
 order Pirro Paderni, who had succeeded La 
 Vega, as Keeper of the Royal Museum, imme- 
 diately to prepare all the “ Papiri” for removal. 
 This I did about noon that very day. Pirro 
 Paderni expressed much alacrity in his apparent 
 readiness to execute this order ; but he told me, 
 that he would go that very afternoon to the 
 Secretary of State, from whom, for his own se- 
 curity, after the orders of the King, he must 
 in person receive a written command for the 
 purpose. The whole scene was then shifted. 
 The next morning I was informed, the orders of 
 the King, with regard to these manuscripts, were 
 in revived force. What else could be expected? 
 Your Royal Highness may be pleased to con- 
 sider that the Chevalier Seratti, and others still 
 higher , who were never suspected of too much 
 Anglicism , would, in the instance of these manu- 
 
99 
 
 scripts, avail themselves of every circumstance, 
 that seemed to justify a non-compliance with 
 the demands of your Royal Highness’s Superin- 
 tendent. The circumstance, that his Majesty’s 
 Minister would not officially, much less urgently, 
 insist upon the removal of the manuscripts, gave 
 the party, who opposed that removal, a fair pre- 
 text for that opposition. This party said, and I 
 heard it repeated, that this removal could not 
 have been wished by Government, otherwise his 
 Majesty’s Minister would have interposed. So 
 far this party may be thought to be supported 
 by some justification, provided your Royal 
 Highness could, for a moment, be reconciled to 
 the measure of abandoning to the common 
 enemy those objects. For the acquisition of 
 them a person had been sent to Naples, under 
 your own Royal Commission, and received in 
 that character by the Neapolitan Court. In the 
 acquisition of them that person had several years 
 
 o 2 
 
100 
 
 employed the most continual, and the most em- 
 barrassing study, and fatigue, and at the ex- 
 pence of his Majesty’s Government, and under 
 the sanction of an Act of Parliament, in the 
 Kingdom of a Sovereign, who is under the most 
 essential obligations to Great Britain. With the 
 beforementioned pretext, however, not only all 
 the original manuscripts, which would be in- 
 jured, it was said, by removal, but even the 
 engraved* fac simile copies of some books of 
 Epicurus, unfolded during my superintendency, 
 (and surely these could not be injured by removal) 
 were abandoned to the common enemy. Besides, 
 this pretext enabled two different parties to 
 secure the attainment of their wishes, directed 
 
 * The Neapolitan Government would never permit me to pay the 
 expences, which attended the engraving. This apparent liberality was 
 eventually proved to be, in the utmost sense of the expression, Awpov 
 aJcopoy. 
 
101 
 
 as they were, upon different motives, to the same 
 end. The one branch consisted in those men, 
 who would not follow the Court to Sicily. These 
 men must have been eager to retain at Naples 
 all the Royal property, which would gratify thei 
 new masters, and secure for themselves, to 
 any degree, means of indulgence, or protection. 
 The other branch consisted of those, who had 
 been employed about these manuscripts; Rosini, 
 Peter la Vega, the unfolders,* and the copyists, 
 wished to retain, as, in fact , they retain, the 
 same employment under the French. Both 
 these branches of the same party, protected by 
 the Queen, obtained, through Seratti, the King’s 
 order for not removing these manuscripts, nor 
 those engraved fac simile copies. To these mo- 
 tives must be added another, if I may call indif- 
 
 * With *e exception of Camillo, and Francesco Paderni, who went to ' 
 
 Palermo. 
 
102 
 
 ference a motive, for relinquishing these manu- 
 scripts. This indifference of men in the two 
 Sicilies with regard to literature in general, and 
 therefore with regard to these manuscripts, is 
 remarkable. For instance, a Marquis Berio, 
 with whom I was well acquainted, had one of 
 the best libraries in the world. He possessed 
 the reputation of learning, and of the encourage- 
 ment of the learned. This eminent Letterato , 
 in the frequent visits he made me at Tortici, 
 would always come to my own house, to the 
 Museum never. A man of that country, now 
 high in office at Palermo, asked me, whether the 
 text of those famosi papiri were not Arabick. 
 
 More than two hundred <c Papiri” had been 
 opened wholly, or in part, during my stay at 
 Naples. The experience of every day had added 
 infinite facility, and skill, with accurate, and 
 secure, but rapid dexterity, to each unfolder, 
 and copyist. Hence, with these increasing 
 
103 
 
 advantages, every one of the remaining fifteen 
 hundred, or as many of them as could be 
 opened, would be opened, and copied, it was 
 reasonably, and universally calculated, within 
 the space of six years at the most. The enemy 
 can, therefore, in addition to the original manu- 
 scripts themselves, enjoy the advantage of this 
 improved skill in the persons, whom I employed 
 about them. 
 
 When I retired with the fac simile copies 
 alone, in February, 1806, from Naples to Paler- 
 mo, there I remained, as it was my duty to 
 remain, until I should be honoured with your 
 Royal commands* for my return to England. 
 Besides, as it was thus incumbent upon me to 
 stay, so, while I stayed, I was continually flat- 
 
 * An exact copy of the letter, in which those commands were 
 communicated to me at Alcamo, by Lord Amherst, his Majesty’s Minister 
 at that time, is inserted as follows : 
 
104 
 
 tered with the hopes of resuming my superin- 
 tendency of the manuscripts at Portici. For 
 some time the Court, as it was generally said, 
 was in expectation of a counter-revolution in 
 its favour at Naples. 
 
 During my residence at Palermo, I com- 
 posed and printed a Latin Poem, entitled Her- 
 culaneum, humbly addressed to your Royal 
 Highness. This Poem will not be published 
 
 “ Palermo, 
 
 “ 1 6th July, 1809. 
 
 “ Sir, 
 
 “ The bearer of this letter, Mr. Hunter, jun. a King’s 
 Messenger, is sent to you by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 
 with instructions respecting your return to England. I doubt not that you 
 will pay due obedience to his Royal Highness’s commands. 
 
 “ I am, Sir, 
 
 “ Your obedient, humble Servant, 
 
 “ AMHERST. 
 
 “ The Reverend 
 
 f 
 
 “ John Hayter." 
 
105 
 
 here for the present, because the subject for the 
 Prize Exercises this year in the University of 
 Oxford is the very same with that of my Poem. 
 This point of requisite delicacy was suggested 
 to me by Mr. Tyrwhitt, a gentleman, who, as 
 he is high in the service, and is, in every respect, 
 a most disinterested, unalterably attached, and 
 faithful servant of your Royal Highness, so, in 
 receiving, and executing all your Royal Com- 
 mands, concerning these Herculaneum Manu- 
 scripts, has ever displayed the most zealous, most 
 uniform, and most laudable, attention. 
 
 At Palermo it was in vain that I applied to 
 the Chevalier Seratti to obtain permission to have 
 for my use, and with a view to publication, 
 a single manuscript, that is, a single foe simile 
 copy, of all the fac simile copies, which were 
 brought from Naples, although they had been 
 unfolded, and copied, under my direction, and 
 although they had all been corrected, and many 
 
 p 
 
106 
 
 of them had been interpreted, and translated, 
 by myself. This Minister of State wished, as 
 he had with the most corrupt, and most inde- 
 corous misconduct, contributed, to deprive your 
 Royal Highness of all the original manuscripts, 
 and of some of the most valuable engraved 
 fac simile copies, to have been also as success- 
 fully guilty with regard to all those fac simile 
 copies. The auspicious return of the Right 
 Honourable Sir William Drummond, his Ma- 
 jesty’s Minister at that Court, this second time 
 the successor, as the first time the predecessor, 
 of Hugh Elliot, Esq., defeated all the intentions 
 of the Chevalier Seratti. The Chevalier de' 
 Medici, the successor of the Chevalier Seratti, 
 complied at once with the demands of Sir Wil- 
 liam Drummond, and consigned to him, by 
 order of the King, all the fac simile copies, 
 which are now at Oxford. Of these, the Trea- 
 tise upon Death, and the Fragment of the 
 
107 
 
 Latin Poem, together with the Greek and Latin 
 Alphabets, were immediately engraved under my 
 superintendency at Palermo. 
 
 Permit me now. Sir, to express the proud 
 satisfaction, I feel, that your Royal Highness 
 deigns to accept, with gracious indulgence, this 
 account of my Herculaneum Mission, of its 
 nature, of its progress, and its result. That 
 progress was arrested ; — that result was rendered 
 less important, and less productive, by the inva- 
 sion of the enemy, and by the misconduct of 
 friends. Yet, in this general cause, and interest 
 of literature, your Royal Highness has been 
 pleased to give to the University of Oxford, and, 
 through that University, to the world, most 
 convincing proofs, convincing both by their 
 number, and in their intrinsick value, that the 
 result of my mission, in spite of many unfavour- 
 able circumstances, is more satisfactory, than 
 could have been expected. Mankind, at least, 
 
 p 2 
 
108 
 
 must be of opinion, that the Patronage of this 
 general cause, and interest, was not unsuitable 
 to the exalted Dignity of the Heir Apparent of 
 the British Empire. In the impartial judgment, 
 and register of posterity, in the bright annals of 
 true renown, the name of your Royal Highness 
 will be inseparably associated with this general 
 cause, and interest of reason, and of knowledge, 
 and will be indelibly recorded. 
 
 With the most devoted sentiments of 
 loyalty, I humbly beg permission to subscribe 
 myself, 
 
 SIR, 
 
 Your Royal Highness’s most dutiful. 
 
 And most faithful Servant, 
 
 JOHN HAYTER, 
 
 London, 
 
 April QOlh, 1811. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 HERCULANEUM* 
 
 O! Regni, et Britonum spes altera, maxime 
 Princeps, 
 
 Cui genus excelsum, Georgique insignius astro 
 Ef'tulget procul, et medio caput se there condit, 
 
 T u carmen ne sperne, precor, ne vota canentis : 
 Auspiciis et siqua tuis tibi florea texam 5 
 
 Sei ta lege ns studio memon, quot nnllia pingit 
 Sebeti ad sacros latices Acheloia Music 
 Filia Parthenope, quamvis indigna ferentem 
 
 * The Exordium of the Poem, see page 101. 
 
110 
 
 Excipias vultu praesenti. Munera Vates 
 Quis Tibi digna feret! magni quin Nominis 
 obstat 10 
 
 Et Decus, et Virtus, et inani dejicit auso. 
 
 O! si Mseonio posse m te dicere versu, 
 Augustamque pari famam resonare camaena, 
 Tunc canerem, quanto quae gratia! qui decor oris! 
 Ouot mille incessu veneres, quot mille loquenti 15 
 Arrident lepidae, corpusque per omne viriles 
 Ornatus blando placituros lumine fundunt ! 
 
 Tu quanto, Gradivi instar, molimine belli 
 Instrumenta cies, siquando animosa cupido 
 Laudis in arma rapit, patriaque accendit inulta! 20 
 Quam Peditum instructas acies, Equitumque 
 catervas 
 
 Ducisque innumeros, subitoque reducis in orbes 
 Imperio exercens agili ! Quam Tu obvius hosti 
 Ire paras, populo invito ! nam carior illi 
 Vita tua est, Gallis quam gloria parta subactis. 25 
 Tu procerum, et vulgi fido discrimine vindex 
 
Ill 
 
 J lira foves, Legesque sacras, civiliter aequus, 
 
 Et fas, et morem cultu, normaque tueris. 
 
 Sed Tibi praecipua dulces ante omnia Musae 
 Pertentant animum cura, positasque resumunt,30 
 Te revocante, lyras, quamquam formidine vexet 
 Gallorum furor, et convulso terreat Orbi. 
 
 Ipse Tuo emensus longi maris aequora jussu 
 Euboici demum consedi ad littoris oram 
 Sarrasten, Graiosque Phlegraea in sede colonos, 35 
 Ut peragrem Argolicas loca per combusta Vesevi 
 Relliquias : ut pumiceo conclusa sepulcro 
 Hercules monumenta urbis, doctasque favillas 
 Imis eripiam tenebris, molique Typhaeae. 
 
* t <!OVoi inul 
 
 - 
 
 o- osoiiffuq lii : w;iupillafl 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A NEW EDITIOi 
 
 OF THE 
 
 FIRST LETTER, 
 
 ADDRESSED, WITH PERMISSION, 
 
 TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 
 
 THE PRINCE OF WALES. 
 
 Q 
 
PREFATORY REMARK 
 
 UPON 
 
 THIS NEW EDITION. 
 
 In this Letter, when a very limited number of 
 its copies was published, before my departure 
 in 1800 , there were some errors, occasioned bv 
 the want of requisite accuracy in those to whom 
 I was referred in this country, for the most au- 
 thentick information. These errors I am com- 
 manded, because personal observation enables 
 me, to correct ; and thus corrected, and repub- 
 lished, this Letter is only preparatory to the 
 publication of a second Letter, addressed, with 
 permission, to the same illustrious Personage, 
 and containing a narrative of all which either has 
 been done, or has occurred in the prosecution of 
 this laborious, and difficult undertaking. 
 
 Q 2 
 
TO 
 
 THE PRINCE. 
 
 — ■■ — sit Numine vestro 
 
 Pandere res alta terra, et caligine mersas. Vie. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 It is with the most humble sense of 
 duty and respect, that I solicit the honour of 
 being permitted to lay before your Royal High- 
 ness these few pages, which embrace, in a short, 
 and summary account, the whole object of your 
 very important design. May your Royal High- 
 ness deign to accept this Paper, as the first fruits, 
 as it were, of the mission, to which you have 
 been most graciously pleased to appoint me, and 
 as a tributary pledge of the zeal and assiduity, 
 with which I shall never cease to be actuated in 
 
118 
 
 obeying your Commands, while I endeavour to 
 merit, in some degree, this distinguished mark of 
 your Patronage, by employing my utmost abilities 
 for the accomplishment of a design, not only 
 originating from your own judgment and intu- 
 ition, but, in its execution, involving the honour 
 of your Royal Highness, as well as the interests 
 of learning, and the hopes of the learned. 
 
 The numerous settlements of the Greeks in 
 Italy, received the name of Magna Grsecia, 
 because their mother country was of a size con- 
 siderably less than that, in which they were 
 planted : among these were nearly all the cities 
 in the Province of Campania, including Naples, 
 the capital of his Sicilian Majesty, and, also, 
 Herculaneum, and Pompeii, which are supposed 
 to boast a foundation coeval with Hercules him- 
 self, three thousand and fifty years ago, or twelve 
 hundred and fifty years before the Christian sera. 
 This Province, more than any other part of 
 
119 
 
 Magna Grsecia, was always celebrated for the 
 studious and successful cultivation of the Arts 
 and Sciences. The two Cities of Herculaneum 
 and Pompeii ranked next to that of Naples in 
 every respect, as places of considerable note ; 
 they had their public theatres, with every other 
 attendant, of great population, splendour, opu- 
 lence, and general prosperity. These, in com- 
 mon with all the rest of Campania, became the 
 elegant and favourite resort of the Romans, for 
 the different purposes of health, luxury, repose, 
 and erudition. 
 
 In the ninth year of Nero’s reign,® these 
 two cities experienced a most formidable shock 
 from an earthquake, which overthrew a great 
 
 * U. C. 816. 
 
 A. D. 63. 
 
 Caius Memmius Regulus, 
 
 Lucius Virginius Rufus, Consuls. 
 
120 
 
 part of them. Nor had they recovered alto- 
 gether from the effects of this calamity by their 
 exertions, and the aid of Imperial munificence, 
 when a second calamity, of a different nature, 
 but equally unexpected, consigned them both at 
 once to the most complete oblivion. This cala- 
 mity was the great eruption of Vesuvius, which 
 happened on the 24th day of August, two full 
 months from the accession of the Emperor Titus 
 Vespasian.''' Herculaneum was buried under a 
 mass of heavy volcanick matter, to the depth, 
 in some places, of seventy feet ; while Pompeii 
 and Stabiae, being more distant from the moun- 
 tain, were overwhelmed principally with a shower 
 of ashes, nor in any place to any considerable 
 
 * U. C. 832. 
 
 A. D. 79 
 
 Flavius Vespasianus 9- 
 Titus Vespasianus 8. Consuls. 
 
121 
 
 depth. But the fate of the two first was sudden 
 and inevitable ; and yet it appears, that almost 
 all of the inhabitants, and what is an equally 
 surprising circumstance, more of the Hercula- 
 neans, than the Pompeians escaped. Besides a 
 few other skeletons, there have been found in 
 the cellar of a villa beyond the northern gate of 
 Pompeii eighteen skeletons; and thus, by the 
 paucity of their number, the relation of Dio 
 Cassius, who states the destruction of the 
 people, while assembled at the theatre, is proved 
 to be totally erroneous. It may be proper to 
 remark, that, before this eruption, the whole of 
 Vesuvius was in a state of cultivation and ferti- 
 lity, from the top to the bottom ; and though 
 the form and soil of the mountain, in one parti- 
 cular spot, seemed to denote the traces of some 
 former explosion, yet no extant memorial of any 
 kind had recorded it. 
 
 Neither of these two cities was discovered 
 
 it 
 
122 
 
 again till a long period of more than sixteen 
 centuries. It was at the beginning of the last 
 century, that some labourers, by order of the 
 Prince d’Elbeuf, proprietor of the. territory, in 
 sinking a well, struck their tools against a statue, 
 which was on a bench in the theatre of Hercu- 
 laneum. Some years afterwards, Pompeii was 
 discovered with much less difficulty, as the in- 
 cumbent stratum was neither so hard, nor so 
 deep as that of the former city. 
 
 The whole number of the manuscripts 
 saved from Herculaneum,* is to the amount of 
 eighteen hundred, if I am rightly informed by 
 those, whose official situation must give them a 
 competent knowledge of the subject. Your 
 
 * Some remains of manuscripts found in Pompeii, in the Museum 
 at Portici, are totally white, and without a single character. The slight, 
 loose, thin stratum of ashes could not preserve them from the effects of 
 rain, and other moisture. 
 
123 
 
 Royal Highness, by facilitating the develope- 
 ment of those volumes, will, probably, be the 
 means of further excavation, and of rescuing 
 from their interment an infinite quantity ot 
 others. Nearly fifty years ago, his Sicilian Ma- 
 jesty ordered the developement, the transcrip- 
 tion, and the publication of the volumes, which 
 had then been saved, to be undertaken. This 
 operation was accordingly begun, and has never 
 been discontinued till the late invasion of the 
 French. But its mode, however excellent, was 
 extremely slow; it has been performed by a 
 single person in general, and never by more than 
 two or three persons, under the direction of the 
 Royal Herculaneum Academy, whose President 
 is always the Secretary of State for the Depart- 
 ment of the “ Case Reali. 
 
 The frames are square, and of wood, sup- 
 ported by four legs. The sides are close ; but a 
 hole in the bottom admits some ribands, to 
 
 R 2 
 
124 
 
 which a proportionable weight is appended for 
 securing each respective manuscript steadily in 
 the circles of brass fixed upon the heads of two 
 steel upright pieces in the inside of the bottom, 
 at a distance from each other, suitable to the 
 several lengths of the different manuscripts ; in 
 these, indeed, some little variation of lengths is 
 found. Upon the top of the frames, some screws 
 are placed, and turn the silken threads, which 
 descend to the gold-beater’s skin upon the sur- 
 face of the manuscripts : to this skin they are 
 fastened with gum and water; but the skin, 
 which thus lines the surface, is cut into many 
 small pieces ; and, before fastening these pieces, 
 the surface is narrowly examined by the unfolder, 
 with the assistance of a magnifying-glass, in 
 order not to place any of those pieces over the 
 numberless chasms, or holes, produced in the 
 surface by the volcanick materials, by lapse of 
 time, or other accidental, or incidental, circum- 
 
125 
 
 stance. The pieces are attached with glue and 
 water, and, therefore, if, through neglect, or 
 from undiscernible minuteness, they should be 
 laid on any such chasm, or hole, they would 
 forcibly raise all the portion of a manuscript, to 
 the whole depth of the chasm, or hole, and 
 injure, or destroy the manuscript itself. From 
 the operation of thus cautiously proceeding to 
 open the manuscript, the unfolder advances to 
 separate such destined portion of the surface at 
 the edge itself, with an instrument like an awl, 
 and the said portion, thus partially separated at 
 the edge only, is then totally disclosed, and 
 raised to view, by turning the screws above, and 
 drawing the silken threads. 
 
 This process, so suited to the double pur- 
 pose of unfolding the substance, and, at the 
 same time, of holding together its frail and 
 crumbling texture, was invented by a Monk, 
 called Piaggi, procured by Charles III. King of 
 
m 
 
 Naples, from the Pope, to whom he was sub- 
 librarian. He was a man of great mechanical 
 genius, but of no erudition, and, therefore, each 
 unfolded portion was delivered by him to the 
 celebrated Mazzochi, the Bentley of Naples, and 
 author of that inestimable work, the Treatise 
 upon the Heraclean Tables. The first manu- 
 script, which was unfolded, was the Treatise 
 upon Musick, prepared by Mazzochi for publi- 
 cation, as we now see it. Not more than seven- 
 teen others were unfolded in a space of more 
 than forty years. That upon Musick, and no 
 other, was ever published. This is in the Li- 
 brary of his Majesty, where, through the oblig- 
 ing politeness of Mr. Barnard, the King’s Libra- 
 rian, I have had the advantage of perusing it. 
 Indeed, I hope your Royal Highness will not 
 disapprove my acknowledging, in this place, the 
 very warm and respectful interest, which both 
 this gentleman, and the Right Honourable the 
 
127 
 
 President of the Royal Society/'-'' have expressed 
 for the furtherance of your Royal Highness’s 
 great and good design. Meanwhile, by this 
 Specimen of Philodemus, I am convinced, that 
 if the frames should be multiplied to the pro- 
 posed extent, several pages of thirty different 
 manuscripts might be disclosed, and transcribed 
 within the space of one year, or, perhaps, 
 sooner. 
 
 But the very period, at which the manu- 
 scripts were buried, serves to point out to your 
 Royal Highness, that you may expect the reco- 
 very of either the whole, or, at least, parts of 
 
 * It was suggested by Sir Joseph Banks, that from the nature of 
 the ancient atr amentum, which, perhaps, was not so much an ink as a 
 paint, and from the materials of these manuscripts, there may be derived 
 a chance of applying a chemical process to this developement of the 
 cinders, with increased expedition and effect. The suggestion is of the 
 first importance ; hereafter there may be an opportunity of ascertaining 
 its utility by experiment. 
 
128 
 
 the best writers in antiquity, hitherto deemed 
 irrecoverable. All of these, in truth, had been 
 written before that period, if we except Tacitus, 
 whose inestimable works were, unfortunately, not 
 composed till twenty years afterwards, during the 
 reign of Trajan. 
 
 Nor can it be imagined for a moment, that 
 among eighteen hundred manuscripts, already 
 discovered, and especially from the numberless 
 ones, which further excavations may supply, lost 
 at such a period in one of the most capital 
 cities, in the richest, most frequented, and most 
 learned province of Italy, an established seat of 
 the Arts and Sciences, the resort of the most 
 distinguished Romans, not any part of those 
 illustrious authors should be discovered. 
 
 But the Manuscript of Philodemus itself, 
 makes the reverse of such an idea appear much 
 more probable. To the moderns, who have 
 
 “ Untwisted all the chains, that tie 
 “ The hidden soul of harmony,” 
 

 his Treatise on Musick cannot, indeed, be sup- 
 posed to communicate much information ; yet 
 the subject is scientific, and scientifically treated. 
 The author himself, too, was one of the most 
 eminent men, in his time, for wit, learning, and 
 philosophy. But in the rest of the arts* and 
 sciences, in history, in poetry, the discovery of 
 any lost writer, either in whole, or in part, 
 would be deemed a most valuable acquisition, 
 and treasure, and form a new sera in literature. 
 
 It is extremely fortunate, that the cha- 
 racters f of these manuscripts, whether they 
 should be Greek, or Latin, must be very obvi- 
 ous and legible. Before the year of our Lord 
 
 * Particularly the ancient mode of cementing in architecture, and on 
 proportions in sculpture and painting. 
 
 t One of the principal difficulties in copying these manuscripts, 
 appears to consist in supplying the proper letters, or words, at the 
 different chasms. 
 
 S 
 
130 
 
 79, and some time after it, the majuscules, or 
 unciales litterce , capital letters, were solely used. 
 A page, therefore, in one of these manuscripts, 
 would present to your Royal Highness an exact 
 image of some mutilated inscription in those 
 languages, on an ancient column, statue, or 
 sepulchre. 
 
 There cannot remain a doubt, even omit- 
 ting the assurances from men of official situa- 
 tion to that effect, that your Royal Highness’s 
 Superintendent will receive every possible as- 
 sistance from the Royal Herculaneum Academy, 
 and the Neapolitan Government ; and in that 
 case it seems improbable, that the object of this 
 mission can be altogether fruitless. 
 
 With such a termination of it, however, 
 your Royal Highness, by having proposed to 
 concur with his Sicilian Majesty in the quicker, 
 and more effectual developement, transcription, 
 and publication, of these manuscripts, will reap 
 
131 
 
 the satisfaction of having made a most princely 
 attempt in behalf of knowledge and literature, 
 upon an occasion where their interests might be 
 affected most materially, and in a manner, of 
 which no annals have afforded, or can hereafter 
 afford, an example. Even the manuscript of 
 Thecla, the world will recollect, notwithstanding 
 some disputes about the exact date of its anti- 
 quity, has been deemed invaluable, more parti- 
 cularly as corroborating the authority of all the 
 sacred writings, which it embraces. The cele- 
 brated Montfaucon, so long engaged in quest of 
 some ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts, 
 especially the latter, thought the motive alone 
 of his researches, however fruitless, repaid, with 
 competent gratification of conscious merit, all 
 his liteiary toil and exertions. In the present 
 instance, also, your Royal Highness’s very inter- 
 position will be your glory : your want of suc- 
 
 s 2 
 
132 
 
 cess will only make the learned world feel with 
 gratitude, what you would have done. 
 
 This imperfect Narrative seemed the only 
 method in my power, of submitting to your 
 Royal Highness a sketch of those facts, which 
 have given rise to the present Mission ; and I 
 shall esteem myself highly honoured, if your 
 Royal Highness would graciously condescend to 
 accept it. 
 
 Permit me to subscribe myself, 
 
 SIR, 
 
 Your Royal Highness’s most dutiful. 
 
 Obliged, and devoted Servant, 
 
 JOHN HAYTER. 
 March QQth, 1800. 
 
DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PAPYRUS PLANT. 
 
 The respective Drawings of the Papyrus, in- 
 serted in this Appendix, are of that Plant, as it 
 grows in Sicily, near Syracuse. What I have 
 said in page 32 of the Second Letter, seems to 
 make the insertion of these drawings almost 
 necessary. 
 
 The late ingenious Chevalier Landolini, 
 whom I have mentioned in a note of the same 
 page, has from the Sicilian Papyrus manufac- 
 tured a substance, of which I have seen a written 
 
134 
 
 specimen in the Royal Museum at Portici. By 
 repeated experiments upon other specimens I 
 have found, that modern paper itself is not 
 much better adapted to the purpose of writing, 
 than this substance. Hence the Chevalier, in 
 an Italian manuscript Essay, now at Oxford, 
 concludes, from arguments of much weight at 
 least, should they not appear convincing to 
 others, as well as to myself, that this Sicilian 
 Papyrus is the same* with that of riEgypt, as 
 described by Theophrastus, and Pliny.f The 
 same plant grows in the Flora at Palermo, where 
 it was, I think, much neglected. 
 
 * A contrary position is fairly stated by the learned Author of the 
 articles “ Paper,” and “ Papyrus,” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. To 
 that work I must refer, except for the original, and translation of Theo- 
 phrastus, De Plantis, lib. 4, which I have inserted in this place. 
 
 f To these you may add Cassiodorus. 
 
135 
 
 In Theophrastus, Lib. 4, De Plantis, the 
 Papyrus is described as one of the three ^Egyp- 
 tian plants, which, (he says) amongst an infinite 
 number of others of that kind, in the same 
 country, are the sweetest, and the most nutri- 
 tive. < 3 >v srai Jg o TrdiTCvpog ovk sv fiaQsi rov vdarog aAA’ a gov 
 
 sv Jyo 7 n riysgiv sviayov Jg mi sAarrovi. Udyog fjosv ovv 
 Trigpifyg mpnog dvdpog svpdgrov. M ijxog Jg vrsp dim nfiysig' 
 <pvsTa.i Jg VTrep rtjg yrjg dvr rjg nAayiag pi£a.g sig rov 7rr\Aov 
 mQieigx Asn rag mi 7 rvavdg, dvu Jg rovg zarvpovg mAovfasvovg 
 r piydvovc [asys&oc dc rsrpanriysig nopiriv eyovrag dypsiav mi 
 dgQsvrj, mpnov ds oAocg ovdsva. T ovrovg d’ dvad'idccgi mrd 
 noAAa j usprj. Xpdvrai Jg rcug (jlsv ’pi^aig dvr i %vAuv ov [advov 
 rd m'isiv aAAa xdi rd gu's vrj aAAa no is tv £% dvrov 7ra.vroda.7rd. 
 noAii yap eysi to %vAov mi mAov. dvrog Jg 'o ndnvpog rpog 
 nAsigra ypr,gi[jiog' mi ydp nAoia g£ dvrov, mi ’s y rqg (ZifiAov 
 ’igria rs nAsyovgi mi fiddovc mi sgflrjrag nvag mi grpufavscg 
 mi gyoivta rs mi srspa nAs iui. K on spupavigrara dri r oig 
 
 £%od rd fiifiAia MaAigra Jg y.di nAstgrr, fioriQaa npdc r t)v 
 rpo(pr)v ’an ’avrov ytvsrai. Magdvraiydp " anavrsg '01 sv rrj 
 
1 36 
 
 p££opa noinvpov mi ’wptot' mi e<p6ov mi ’ortrov. Ka t rov ph 
 yyXov mroiKmwiv. To <T jaa£»)ja a. 'eKfixXKovGiv. 'O y.ev 
 ovv noinvpoG toiovtoG ts mi toimtclG mpsyerxi ra G ffleictG. 
 
 “ The Papyrus grows not to a whole, but 
 about two cubits, and sometime less, depth of 
 water. Moreover the thickness of its root is 
 equal to the wrist of a stout man, and its height 
 more than ten cubits. It grows, however, above 
 the ground itself, while it shoots, below, oblique, 
 slender, and numerously-crowded fibres, into the 
 mud, and, above, the papyrus’s, as they are called, 
 of a triangular form, not less in measure than 
 four cubits, or thereabout, with an unserviceable, 
 feeble leaf, and totally without fruit of any kind, 
 and it produces these (papyrus’s) in many parts. 
 But, instead of wood, they use not only the 
 fibres for fuel, but also make from (the whole 
 plant) itself utensils of every species, quite dif- 
 ferent, (from fuel) because the plant has woody 
 materials in great quantity, and of good ap- 
 
137 
 
 pearance. In truth, the Papyrus itself"' is 
 serviceable for very many things, as they form 
 out of it vessels for navigation ; besides that, 
 from its rind they form not only sails, but mats, 
 and certain dresses, and coverings, and even 
 ropes, and many other things, and books, f which 
 are, indeed, the most distinguished by the 
 attention of foreigners. But, what is the greatest 
 circumstance of all, it yields even a considerable 
 supply for nutriment, for every one in the coun- 
 try chews the Papyrus, as well in a raw, as in a 
 boiled, and roasted state ; and they swallow, 
 indeed, the juice, but eject the cud. The 
 Papyrus, in a word, is of such a nature, and from 
 itself supplies useful objects of such a quality. 
 
 * In its whole bulk, and stock, as distinguished from the roots, and 
 
 branches. 
 
 f The force of the original 1 3<|3?V(a, books, and (3/j3Xo?, rind, or 
 bark, must be lost in a translation. 
 
 T 
 
Zondon Zii b lulled . t/tri/ aaii&a. by JUchaidJ’MUips J? IJfar Bridge Jr, vet. 
 

A BRIEF REMARK 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 HERCULANENSIA. 
 
 As the Manuscript Yls^l tuv ®euv, published iii 
 the Herculanensia, dedicated to his Royal High- 
 ness the Prince, was decyphered, and its lacuna e 
 filled up by me, it may be proper, that I just 
 advert to it in this Appendix of my Letter, 
 addressed to his Royal Highness. 
 
 It has given me some pain, not unmingled 
 with surprise, to observe the criticisms which 
 have been made on this Manuscript in some of 
 the Reviews. The Authors of the Herculanensia 
 were absent, as they themselves have assured 
 me, from London, when the greatest part of that 
 
 t 2 
 
140 
 
 book was re-printed from a copy already printed 
 at Palermo, in which the errors of the press 
 were innumerable. Many of those errors have, 
 unfortunately, been retained in the edition 
 printed at London, where there was no person 
 but the printer himself to correct the press. I 
 then saw, with grief, much critical hostility di- 
 rected against manifest errors of the press, and 
 I lamented to see so much anger, and so much 
 erudition, expended on blunders, that every 
 scholar could amend, and every school-boy could 
 detect. I flattered myself that these instances 
 of false orthography in Greek would have been 
 attributed to the errors of the press, and not to 
 the author of the Supplements. In one page 
 of the Herculanensia , Tarquinius Priscus is called 
 the sun of a Corinthian. Now, really, I should 
 have as soon have thought of hearing a critic 
 calling out to Mr. Walpole, a man of profound 
 learning, that he had made a great mistake in 
 
141 
 
 writing sun for son , as of being myself attacked 
 with the remarks, that I had written vikJcc for 
 wk]ol 9 &c. &c. There may be, and there probably 
 are, wrong conjectures in my Supplements ; but 
 I ought not to repent of having discharged the 
 duties, which his Royal Highness has so graci- 
 ously imposed upon me, in consequence of any 
 objections that may have been raised against 
 mere errors of the press. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 G. Sidney, Printer, 
 Northumberland Street, Strand, London. 
 

 
 
 
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