Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/32



discovery of a considerable number of ancient manuscripts among the ruins of Herculaneum, it the foot of Mount Vesuvius, was hailed at the time by every lover of antiquity throughout Europe, as an event which promised to add to our classic literature many an author whose works might hitherto have been unknown, or, if known, lamented as lost; or at least to afford the means of supplying the chasms with which a barbarous age had handed us some of the most invaluable remains of the learning of Rome and Greece. Unfortunately, these fond hopes have to this day remained disappointed. The progress made in unrolling them, although perhaps commensurate with the difficulty of the task, has hitherto been insignificant; and the emigration of the court of Naples to Sicily, with, as I am credibly informed, the most perfect part of the papyri, is not calculated to encourage any very sanguine expectations.

As, however, a few of the best preserved rolls are at this moment in England, and in the possession of an august personage, whose love for literature will not suffer such a treasure long to lay dormant, I conceive it may be acceptable to the classic scholar, to know the method which has been adopted at Portici for unfolding their contents. That process certainly is of the most tedious nature, but, as yet, no other has been successfully attempted;