Page:The Education of Henry Adams (1907).djvu/203

 mark, which I find the same as that of paper used by Marc Antonio." A little taken aback by this method of studying art, a method which even a poor and ignorant American might use as well as Rafael himself, Adams asked stupidly:—"Then you think it genuine?" "Possibly!" replied Reed; "but much overdrawn."

Here was expert-opinion after a second revise, with help of water marks! In Adams's opinion it was alone worth another twelve shillings as education; but this was not all. Reed continued:—"The lines on the back seem to be writing, which I cannot read, but if you will take it down to the manuscript room, they will read it for you."

Adams took the sheet down to the keeper of the manuscripts and begged him to read the lines. The keeper, after a few minutes' study, very obligingly said he could not:—"It is scratched with an artist's crayon, very rapidly, with many unusual abbreviations and old forms. If anyone in Europe can read it, it is the old man at the table yonder, Libri! Take it to him!"

This expert broke down on the alphabet! he could not even judge a manuscript; but Adams had no right to complain, for he had nothing to pay, not even twelve shillings, though he thought these experts worth more, at least for his education. Accordingly he carried his paper to Libri, a total stranger to him, and asked the old man, as deferentially as possible, to tell him whether the lines had any meaning. Had Adams not been an ignorant person he would have known all about Libri, but his ignorance was vast, and perhaps was for the best. Libri looked at the paper, and then looked again, and at last bade him sit down and wait. Half an hour passed before he called Adams back and showed him these lines:

As far as Adams could afterwards recall it, this was Libri's reading, but he added that the abbreviations were many and unusual; that the writing was very ancient; and that the word he read as "elleria" in the first line was not Italian at all.