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Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

+2228298502

ORIGIN,

THEIR

USES, AND VALUE

AS INTERPRETERS OF ANCIENT HISTORY; AND AS ILLUSTRATIVE
OF ANCIENT ART:

WITH HINTS TO GEM COLLECTORS.

By REV. C. W. KING, M. A..

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

"Gemmæ supersunt et in arctum coacta rerum naturæ majestas, multis

nulla sui parte mirabilior."-PIIN. Nat Hist xxxvii i

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PROBABLY at no period in England has art in its various relations been so intelligently illustrated and so fully investigated as during the last ten years. The numerous exhibitions of works of art, both in this country and on the Continent, have doubtless partly contributed to this result; and with increased development of taste there has sprung up at the same time an earnest desire to investigate the principles of ancient art in its various productions, and to trace the different phases through which it has passed before it attained its highest degree of excellence. Every department of art, both ancient and medieval, has found its expositor or historian; and the amateur or student who desires to make himself acquainted with the painting, sculpture, or pottery of ancient or mediæval times, can at once be referred to able treatises which will furnish him with the fullest information on those and kindred subjects. But there is one department of art in which the ancients peculiarly excelled, and of which

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