Mons. Dacier says[45], that the titles of books were anciently inscribed upon the leathern covers, wherein they were wrapt, and which, by the means of thongs fastened to them, kept the volumes close and compact together. If that learned gentleman had supported this fact by proper evidences, then it must have been concluded, upon the joint authority of such evidences, and of the antiquities under consideration, that the practice of the ancients was, besides the title on the sides of the volume, to affix another on a label at one of its extremities. And indeed this additional notation (whatever we determine concerning its usefulness, while the books lay on a shelf in a library) must have been very necessary, when such books stood upright in a _capsula_ (like those in the painting before us), where no part of them, but one end alone, could possibly be seen. VIII. Some pieces of fine paper, coloured red on one side, and black on the other, found upon the breast of a skeleton. Signor Paderni told me, that they had been viewed with great admiration by such of the virtuosi, as he had shewn them to; and that their admiration proceeded from those fragments appearing not to be of the _charta papyracea_, but of that of silk, cotton, or linen. And indeed, if they should prove to have been made of any of the materials last mentioned, it would contradict the generally received opinion (according to [46]Montfaucon), that paper of silk or cotton, denoted by the common appellation of _charta bombycina_, was first found out in the 9th century; as that composed of linen rags (_ex linteolis contritis et aquâ maceratis_, as Pancirollus[47] expresses it) was about the 12th; and that the former supplied the place of the _charta papyracea_ in the east, as the latter superseded the use of it in the western parts of the world. IX. A flat piece of white glass, taken off from towards the extremity of the sheet, as appears from the curvature and protuberant thickness of one of its sides above the other parts. I have several observations by me, with regard to this fragment, which I have not yet had leisure to digest. I shall therefore proceed to the other parts of this collection. * * * * * To enter into a detail of the paintings found at Herculaneum, and deposited in a different part of the palace at Portici, would be tedious, as their number, when I saw them, exceeded 800; and it would be superfluous, as the principal of them will soon make their appearance in the world by prints taken from them, and executed in a manner, which (as far as I could judge by the specimens shewn me) will in no-wise discredit the originals, I shall therefore only mention two of them, _viz._ I.