DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0311
chap, xiii.] ARCHITECTURAL RENOWN OF FERENTUM. 209
against the severity of frost and the action of fire, and of
extreme hardness and durability, as might be seen from
the monuments of Ferentum, which were made of it. " For
there are noble statues of wondrous workmanship, and like-
wise figures of smaller size, together with foliage and
acanthi, delicately carved, which albeit they be ancient,
appear as fresh as if they were but just now finished."
The brass-founders, he adds, find this stone most useful for
moulds. " Were these quarries near the City, it would be
well to construct everything of this stone." 4 Pliny speaks
of this stone in the same laudatory terms, but calls it a
white silea?.5 Cav. Canina takes this stone to be nenfro;6 but
how can that be when nenfro was found at Gabii, and was
much used at Eome 1 Moreover, it has not the requisite
properties. Now when last at Ferento, I sought particu-
larly to obtain light on this subject. Among the nume-
rous blocks with which the site is strewed, I remarked very
few fragments of architectural decoration; nothing that
would at all bear out the praises of Vitruvius.7 The
cliffs beneath the town are a sort of travertine ; yet the
masonry of the theatre is of a yellowish tufo, not unlike
nenfro; and the town walls are composed of the same or of
limestone. This latter, which is also found in abundance
among the scattered masses, seems too hard for the chisel.
I could perceive nothing which answers to the description
of Vitruvius.
In the neighbourhood of Fe"rento are sepulchres, some of
* Vitruv. II. 7. infers the antiquity of the town.—Ann.
» Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXVI. 49. Inst. 1837, 2, p. 64.
6 Canina, Arch. Ant. VIII. p. 86. There is a stone, quarried at Manzi-
Abeken (Mittelital. p. 16) also holds the ana, near the Lake of Bracciano, which
same opinion. has some of the properties ascribed to
7 Canina perceived architectural frag- that mentioned by Vitruvius and Pliny,
ments among the ruins of the more mo- and is much used in Rome, at the pre-
dern buildings, which he says were in sent day, for moulds for metal-casting,
the old Etruscan Doric style, whence he
VOL. I. P
against the severity of frost and the action of fire, and of
extreme hardness and durability, as might be seen from
the monuments of Ferentum, which were made of it. " For
there are noble statues of wondrous workmanship, and like-
wise figures of smaller size, together with foliage and
acanthi, delicately carved, which albeit they be ancient,
appear as fresh as if they were but just now finished."
The brass-founders, he adds, find this stone most useful for
moulds. " Were these quarries near the City, it would be
well to construct everything of this stone." 4 Pliny speaks
of this stone in the same laudatory terms, but calls it a
white silea?.5 Cav. Canina takes this stone to be nenfro;6 but
how can that be when nenfro was found at Gabii, and was
much used at Eome 1 Moreover, it has not the requisite
properties. Now when last at Ferento, I sought particu-
larly to obtain light on this subject. Among the nume-
rous blocks with which the site is strewed, I remarked very
few fragments of architectural decoration; nothing that
would at all bear out the praises of Vitruvius.7 The
cliffs beneath the town are a sort of travertine ; yet the
masonry of the theatre is of a yellowish tufo, not unlike
nenfro; and the town walls are composed of the same or of
limestone. This latter, which is also found in abundance
among the scattered masses, seems too hard for the chisel.
I could perceive nothing which answers to the description
of Vitruvius.
In the neighbourhood of Fe"rento are sepulchres, some of
* Vitruv. II. 7. infers the antiquity of the town.—Ann.
» Plin. Nat. Hist. XXXVI. 49. Inst. 1837, 2, p. 64.
6 Canina, Arch. Ant. VIII. p. 86. There is a stone, quarried at Manzi-
Abeken (Mittelital. p. 16) also holds the ana, near the Lake of Bracciano, which
same opinion. has some of the properties ascribed to
7 Canina perceived architectural frag- that mentioned by Vitruvius and Pliny,
ments among the ruins of the more mo- and is much used in Rome, at the pre-
dern buildings, which he says were in sent day, for moulds for metal-casting,
the old Etruscan Doric style, whence he
VOL. I. P