Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1832)

POMPEIANA. 99

porcelain of the east was called Mirrha di
Smyrna to as late a date as 1555.

The vast collection of bottles, glasses,
and other utensils discovered at Pompeii is
sufficient to show that the ancients were well
acquainted with the art of glass-blowing in
all its branches; but it is not the less true
that they sometimes used, much as we do,
horn for lanterns, which Plautus terms Vul-
can in a prison of horn ; and that windows,
and Cicero says lanterns, were sometimes
made of linen instead of glass, as we see
oiled paper in modern times. The common
expressions for these objects in Latin appear
to be " Fenestra? volubiles, vel lineis velis,
vel specularia vitratis clausae/'

In process of time glass became so much
the fashion that whole chambers were lined
with it. The remains of such a room were
discovered in the year 1826, near Ficulnea
in the Roman territory; and these are hinted
at in a passage of the Roman naturalist.
" Non dubie vitreas facturas cameras, si
prius id inventum fuisset." In the time of
Seneca the chambers in thermae had walls
covered with glass and Thasian marble, the

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