DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0262
TAEQUINIA. 241
and arranged with art. Cavaliere Manzi had, I
understood, a very valuable collection in Rome of
objects found at Tarquinia; and, from all we heard,
it is a cause of deep regret, and great public
loss, that there should be no museum at Corneto
where one might see specimens of all the various
beautiful and curious objects taken out of the tombs.
The public-spirited Avolta regretted it as much as
we did, but had been too much discouraged, and too
little supported, in what he had already done, to
set it on foot; and I fancy no one else there has at
once the power and the will for such an undertak-
ing.
We thence proceeded to the shop of an old widow
whose former husband had been particularly fortu-
nate in securing to himself a number of scarabei
and jacinths from Tarquinia when the present exca-
vations were first commenced. He had made a great
deal of money, and a few of his stock still remained.
On a former visit we had seen three curious scara-
bei, two of sardonyx, and one of black agate. The
agate had on it an Egyptian device—" Isis in a
grove of Lotus;" the same style, but not nearly so
fine as the plasma di smeraldo which I have men-
tioned ; and one of the others, the device of which
was either a Triga or a Cerberus, had seven couches
or layers of different colours in the stone; perhaps I
ought to say seven different shades of colour, as they
were only varieties of red and white, but the arrange-
ment of them was rare. We could not persuade this
M
and arranged with art. Cavaliere Manzi had, I
understood, a very valuable collection in Rome of
objects found at Tarquinia; and, from all we heard,
it is a cause of deep regret, and great public
loss, that there should be no museum at Corneto
where one might see specimens of all the various
beautiful and curious objects taken out of the tombs.
The public-spirited Avolta regretted it as much as
we did, but had been too much discouraged, and too
little supported, in what he had already done, to
set it on foot; and I fancy no one else there has at
once the power and the will for such an undertak-
ing.
We thence proceeded to the shop of an old widow
whose former husband had been particularly fortu-
nate in securing to himself a number of scarabei
and jacinths from Tarquinia when the present exca-
vations were first commenced. He had made a great
deal of money, and a few of his stock still remained.
On a former visit we had seen three curious scara-
bei, two of sardonyx, and one of black agate. The
agate had on it an Egyptian device—" Isis in a
grove of Lotus;" the same style, but not nearly so
fine as the plasma di smeraldo which I have men-
tioned ; and one of the others, the device of which
was either a Triga or a Cerberus, had seven couches
or layers of different colours in the stone; perhaps I
ought to say seven different shades of colour, as they
were only varieties of red and white, but the arrange-
ment of them was rare. We could not persuade this
M