DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2161#0016
Vlll PREFACE.
An instance of the delay which takes
place in the native publications may be ob-
served in the description of the Temple of
Isis, which, though discovered at so early a
period, is only at this moment in the pro-
gress of illustration by the care of the Ca-
valiere Carelli, whose elaborate account of
that interesting relic, with drawings made
at the time of the excavation, is only now
in preparation; while the monument it-
self has already lost the last vestiges of
the beauty and freshness in which it first
appeared.
It has often been noticed, during the
winter months, that the stuccos which had
been observed perfect, during a first visit to
any newly-discovered edifice, had entirely
disappeared on a second examination; so
that, no traces being left, many of the pret-
tiest fancies of antiquity are irrecoverably
lost; while the order continues to prevent
An instance of the delay which takes
place in the native publications may be ob-
served in the description of the Temple of
Isis, which, though discovered at so early a
period, is only at this moment in the pro-
gress of illustration by the care of the Ca-
valiere Carelli, whose elaborate account of
that interesting relic, with drawings made
at the time of the excavation, is only now
in preparation; while the monument it-
self has already lost the last vestiges of
the beauty and freshness in which it first
appeared.
It has often been noticed, during the
winter months, that the stuccos which had
been observed perfect, during a first visit to
any newly-discovered edifice, had entirely
disappeared on a second examination; so
that, no traces being left, many of the pret-
tiest fancies of antiquity are irrecoverably
lost; while the order continues to prevent