remarkable from the manner in which some of the mouldings are undercut in order to produce
ekect. The details are insignificantly small: the architrave has fine breadth, but overpowers
the frieze and cornice by the contrast: the frieze would have appeared with more advantage
had it been two or three inches higher.
PLATE V.
DOORWAY FROM THE TRAJAN COLUMN, ROME.
This door forms the entrance to the spiral staircase, which, commencing at the pedestal,
leads up to the       it of the capital.  It is a simple architraved door, agreeing in its
proportions very     y with the Vitruvian rules.   The base mouldings of the pedestal are
cut s    g through, instead of being returned in profile to receive the moulding of the
architrave.  It is probable that the inner door itself was anciently bronze : the present one
is evidently modern.
PLATES VI AND VII.
DOORWAY FROM PIRANESI ACCORDING TO AN ANTIQUE INSCRIPTION.
This division of the subject brings us to an antique inscription, which, as relating to a
doorway, will be highly interesting, and the more especially, as it contains architectural
terms, which will be in frequent use in the course of this work.  This valuable monument
contains the particulars of a decree directing the erection of a wall with a doorway, leading
from the highway into the precinct of the Temple to Serapis at Pozzuoli, the remains of which
still attract the admiration of the traveller by their beauty and importance.  It is inscribed
upon three slabs of marble about 4 feet 3 inches long, 1 foot 10 high and nearly an inch
thick, in the same form as it is printed on the next page, and is now preserved in the Farnese
palace at Rome, having been removed from Naples, where it existed when quoted by Philander,
Gruter Inscriptiones a Grzevio t. i: p. x: page ccvii, and Fleetwood ; who have given it
without any other illustration, than an occasional notice of a variety of reading in one or
other of the transcripts.  Piranesi has engraved the inscription, representing all the forms
and varieties of the letters and the fractures of the marble with pictorial effect, unaccompanied
by a translation. But he has rendered a much greater service to the study of antiquity in
illustrating it by an architectural restoration, which he has developed with admirable skill
by elevations and sections, of which free use has been made in order not to leave so important
a document unrecorded in a work, devoted to the same subject as the one to which the
inscription refers.
The skill and ingenuity of Gian Battista were perhaps never more eminently displayed
than in this restoration. He adheres with remarkable fidelity to the text, and retains every
dimension contained in the decree. It will be perceived that none, but an Italian, or one
well acquainted with the Italian habits, could have seized the spirit of the description; for it
is in Italy alone, at the entrances to some of the villas and "poderi," that are to be found
porches of this peculiar character. Some of qr ancient gothic church yards still retain such
gates; but although similar in general arrangement they are of course different in detail.