An Extract of a Letter, dated May 2, 1750...relating to the Ruins of Herculaneum

Read before the Royal Society in 1750, "An Extract of a Letter, dated May 2, 1750, from Mr. Freeman at Naples, to the right honourable Lady Mary Capel, relating to the Ruins of Herculaneum.", contains Mr. Freeman's personal observations as he went through the then-existing excavation of Herculaneum. He describes structures, statues, paintings, and even household goods that had been revealed during the excavations.

The item is a First Edition, extracted and disbound from The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Vol. 47, For the Years 1751 and 1752, pages 131-142. This volume of the transactions was published in London in 1753. The pages, which measure approximately 6 ¼ x 8 ¾ inches, are tanned, but the text is clear and easily read. The overall condition of the item is good/very good.

Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 A.D. It is located in the Italian region of Campania in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. It is most famous for having been lost, along with Pompeii, Stabiae, Boscoreal and Oplontis, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 which buried it in superheated pyroclastic material. It is also famous as one of the few ancient cities that can now be seen in almost its original splendour, because unlike Pompeii, its burial was so deep as to ensure building's upper storeys remained intact, and the hotter ash preserved wooden household objects (beds, doors etc.) and even food. Moreover Herculaneum was a wealthier town than Pompeii with an extraordinary density of fine houses, with far more lavish use of coloured marble cladding. The discovery in recent years of some 300 skeletons along the sea shore came as a surprise since it was known that the town itself had been largely evacuated. [Wikipedia]

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