The taking of this copy is no less a work of extreme patience and nicety, as it is only by a particular reflection of light, that the characters, whose black colour differs very little from that of the carbonized papyrus, can be distinguished. The fac-simile is next handed to an antiquarian, who separates the words and sentences, supplies any hiatus, and otherwise endeavours to restore the sense of the original. By a like process the succeeding pages are unrolled and deciphered, if I may be allowed to use the expression, until the work is completed. The whole is afterwards published, both in letter-press and correct engravings of each page, at the expence of the government.
In this tedious and costly manner, one work (a treatise of Philodemus on the power of music) has been recovered and published. Unfortunately, it was both the first and last with which the lovers of ancient literature have been gratified; and the contents of even this were far from compensating for either the trouble or expence bestowed upon it. Some years ago, the hopes of the learned were revived by the mission of a literary gentleman from England to Naples, for the express purpose of superintending the establishment of Portici, which, by permission of the court of Naples, he actually conducted for a considerable time previous to the invasion of the French. But hitherto none of the fruits of his labour have met the public eye, although the expectations of the classic scholar were from time to time kept alive by notices of that gentleman’s progress, inserted in some of our periodical journals.
I cannot close this article without expressing a hope, that the manuscripts now in England will ere long meet investigation, confident as I am, that the ingenuity of our English artists will be able to suggest a more expeditious process for unrolling them, than the one above detailed; and that, if the task were attended with success in this country, the court of Palermo might be prevailed upon to furnish a succession of new materials to enrich our stores of classic literature.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE REPOSITORY, &c.
I send you a drawing of a ring, supposed to be one that belonged to William III. and which is noticed in Rapin’s History of England. After giving an account of the king’s death, the historian thus continues: “As soon as the breath was out of his body, the Lords Lexington and Scarborough, who were then in waiting, ordered Roujat to take off from the king’s left arm a black ribbon, which tied next to his skin a gold ring, with some hair of the late queen Mary, which shewed the tender regard he had for her memory.” This ring is of pure gold, its breadth is ⅞ inch, and its length is ⅞ inch. Instead of a chrystal, it is covered with what is called a picture diamond, beautifully cut. This drawing is enlarged in the wood-cut, for the sake of shewing the device, of
