DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.846#0070
Private Museums. 67
the Antiquities of Syracuse." I am willing-to believe that the
two tables worked in Mosaic, from the different stones and
marbles of Sicily, are extremely curious. I am willing to be-
lieve that the books in the library are arranged in the neatest
order, and also very easy to be put out of order. lam willing
to believe that the erudilissimo librarian, the canon, curate,
and advocate Avolio, has read, with effect, all that has been
written by Morosius, Leibnitz, and the authors of the French
Encyclopaedia. I am willing to believe that the traveller,
who is versed in the bibliographic science, would fail into
extaeies at the sight of the Aid uses and Giunti, and the Ste-
phenses and Elzivirs; and, I believe, that his extacy would
not be less when he beheld the chronological ranks of the nu-
merous and inestimable collection of works of the fifteenth
century. At the superlative praises bestowed on a certain an-
cient MS. which had fallen from some mosque in Grand
Cairo, my patience entirely failed, and I exclaimed, "The
fact is, that all the merit of this precious codex consists in its
rastiness, and the Abbate Bongiovanni will permit me to say,
that rarities of that kind are not unfrequent, and seldom ex-
cite much admiration."
What is more valuable is a collection of Graeco-Sicilian and
Roman medals, in gold, silver, and bronze.
Private Museums.
Besides the public collection, Ortygia possesses two private
museums, and these, like all cabinets of the kind, both in Italy
and Sicily, are of easy access to strangers. The one belongs
to Don Carolo Russo, the other to Don Raphael Poiiti. The
first contains four large rooms filled with shells and minerals;
the second consists only of one room, but then it is furnished
with a most complete collection of the rarest and the most
celebrated Grasco-Sicilian vases. These precious monuments
have not been useless to the arlists of OHr day. They cannot,
it is true, rival the colours and the groups on the vases, but
they have imitated the shape, and that is something. They
manufacture, at present, at Milazzo, the ancient Mylas of the
Chalcidonians, a great quantity of vases in burnt clay, which,
however rude in workmanship, yet resemble, in shape, these
beautiful Graeco-Siciliau vases. This manufactory is, perhaps,
the only one which can be mentioned in Sicily.
The Latomice, or Quarries of Syracuse.
Of all the objects which are worthy the curiosity of the tra-
veller, these are the most remarkable. There is scarcely an
ancient author wbo has not spoken of them. Cicero and Thu-
K 2
the Antiquities of Syracuse." I am willing-to believe that the
two tables worked in Mosaic, from the different stones and
marbles of Sicily, are extremely curious. I am willing to be-
lieve that the books in the library are arranged in the neatest
order, and also very easy to be put out of order. lam willing
to believe that the erudilissimo librarian, the canon, curate,
and advocate Avolio, has read, with effect, all that has been
written by Morosius, Leibnitz, and the authors of the French
Encyclopaedia. I am willing to believe that the traveller,
who is versed in the bibliographic science, would fail into
extaeies at the sight of the Aid uses and Giunti, and the Ste-
phenses and Elzivirs; and, I believe, that his extacy would
not be less when he beheld the chronological ranks of the nu-
merous and inestimable collection of works of the fifteenth
century. At the superlative praises bestowed on a certain an-
cient MS. which had fallen from some mosque in Grand
Cairo, my patience entirely failed, and I exclaimed, "The
fact is, that all the merit of this precious codex consists in its
rastiness, and the Abbate Bongiovanni will permit me to say,
that rarities of that kind are not unfrequent, and seldom ex-
cite much admiration."
What is more valuable is a collection of Graeco-Sicilian and
Roman medals, in gold, silver, and bronze.
Private Museums.
Besides the public collection, Ortygia possesses two private
museums, and these, like all cabinets of the kind, both in Italy
and Sicily, are of easy access to strangers. The one belongs
to Don Carolo Russo, the other to Don Raphael Poiiti. The
first contains four large rooms filled with shells and minerals;
the second consists only of one room, but then it is furnished
with a most complete collection of the rarest and the most
celebrated Grasco-Sicilian vases. These precious monuments
have not been useless to the arlists of OHr day. They cannot,
it is true, rival the colours and the groups on the vases, but
they have imitated the shape, and that is something. They
manufacture, at present, at Milazzo, the ancient Mylas of the
Chalcidonians, a great quantity of vases in burnt clay, which,
however rude in workmanship, yet resemble, in shape, these
beautiful Graeco-Siciliau vases. This manufactory is, perhaps,
the only one which can be mentioned in Sicily.
The Latomice, or Quarries of Syracuse.
Of all the objects which are worthy the curiosity of the tra-
veller, these are the most remarkable. There is scarcely an
ancient author wbo has not spoken of them. Cicero and Thu-
K 2