Pelasyic and Latian Vases found in Central Italy. 189 addressed by Dr. Alessandro Visconti to Signer Giuseppe Carnevali, in 1817. The whole of this remainder, amounting to about thirty pieces, was of course secured by us ; and they, together with some others which I shall afterwards describe, form the collection to which the attention of the Society is now invited. For facility of reference I have divided this collection into three classes, namely : Class 1, which, for want of a better name, I may call Pelasgic ware. (Plate Vli Group 1.) Class 2, which for the same reason may be called Latian ware. (Plate VI[ Group 2.) Class 3, which consists of ware of a mixed and intermediate character. To begin with Class 1. The whole of these belong to the Cemetery near Albano, and the circumstances attending their discovery are so curious, that I cannot do better than give an outline of them from a notarial document appended to the above mentioned letter of Visconti, attested by the signatures of a great number of respectable persons. It appears that excavations having been made in January, 1817, in the vine- yard of Sig. Carlo Tomasetti, at Marino, near the road loading to Castel Gandolfo, for the purpose of deepening the soil, it became necessary to break up a layer of Peperino rock, and, having done so, fragments of several ancient vases, and one of them entire, were found beneath. About the same time, and at no great distance, Signor Giuseppe Carnevali of Albano, a neighbouring proprietor, having opened the ground in his own vineyard for a similar purpose, discovered a considerable quantity of sepulchral vases of a similar description. The two proprietors, struck Avith the singularity of the circumstance, then agreed to make a further examination together in the vineyard of Signor Tomasetti, and, to make the result more conclusive, summoned a number of respectable and learned persons to assist, whose names are subscribed to the notary's report. On the 4th day of the following February this party renewed the search accordingly : it is unnecessary to pursue the details, but the result was that, after breaking up another portion of the hitherto undisturbed Peperino rock of the thickness of about two palms or 20 inches, they found embedded beneath in a white cretaceous soil various fragments of the same ware, the fractures of which were undoubt- edly ancient, but no whole vases. The party then adjourned to the house of
- Lettera del Dott. Alessandro Visconti al Sig. Giuseppe Camevali di Albano sopra alcuni vasi sepol-
crali rinvenuti nelle vicinanze di Alba Longa. 4to. Rome, 1817.
