File:Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages (14782896282).jpg

Translation of full plate description: This fresco is particularly interesting in that it gives us an idea of a common machine used by the ancients, which has never been described. Vitruvius (2), Pliny (3), Cato (4), speak only of screw or weight presses (torcularia), and the passage of this last author is so confused that his commentator Turnèbe and the learned Popina (1) had to give up clarifying it.

This press appears to be made up of two perpendicular pillars, strongly secured by horizontal crossbeams at their base and upper end: within this frame are three other crossbeams, but all movable, and perhaps sliding along two grooves cut into the pillars; the lowest of the three crossbeams crushes the grapes, which are themselves placed on the solid base of the press, the bed, the forum vinarium (a), in the middle of which is dug a gutter. Wooden wedges are placed between the mobile crossbeams, three wedges for each crossbeam, with the larger end alternately inside and outside. Two Geniuses, acting as the two vineyard helpers, strike the heads of the wedges with their mallets, each taking care only of the wedges with their heads on the side where they are. You can feel that with each hammer blow, the wedges advance between the crosspieces, which may themselves be bevelled; that as they advance, they occupy more space, and that the bunches are thus pressed together by a considerable force. Admittedly, the machine is imperfect and crude, but its effect seems powerful and infallible. In the vicinity of Portici, a grape press of much the same construction is still in use today, but in which the corners are replaced by pressure levers.

The sweet wine, mustum, flows freely into a vase the Latins called lacus (1). From there, the mustum is poured into another vase, and placed on a furnace where a third Genie of the harvest cooks it, shaking it to prevent it from burning, with a wooden spatula called rutabulum or spatha (2). We know that the ancients made great use of cooked wine. Among the Greeks, wine from the five hills of Sparta was the only exception (3). To imitate those of Cos, the Latins cooked their wines and mixed in a little sea water (4). By reducing the liquid by two-thirds, they obtained sapa or hepsema; by reducing it by only half, they had defrutum , and by a third, caraenum (b). Fruits and aromatic herbs were used to give the wine a particular taste, and resinous substances were added to make it last longer. The wines of Vesuvius were highly esteemed: those of Pompeii only improved up to the tenth year; they gave headaches, according to Pliny, the day after drinking them: but the Latin author does not say how much of it could be used with impunity." (1) - Louis Barré, 1870

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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C a HCl Co *• DEUXIÈME SÉRIE. »3 Dans le second cadre , un des enfants tient égalementun roseau fendu ; lantre porte sur lépaule gauche unelongue lance , à la pointe de laquelle est fixé un fruit ouune boule : peut-être est-ce un balancier de danseur decorde. Delà main gauche, ce même Génie porte un anneauà sonnettes suspendu par un cordon, ou bien un deces disques à poignée quon appelait haltères, àVrîïpeç,et quon tenait à la main en se livrant à lexercice dusaut (i). Tous ces Génies président aux arts dont ils portentles attributs. Nous avons groupé ici en une même sérieles personnifications des différents métiers : les anciensaimaient à les représenter, particulièrement dans leslieux destinés à lexercice des professions dont ces Gé-nies étaient pour ainsi dire les patrons. PLANCHE 143. Cette fresque est intéressante surtout en ce quellenous donne lidée dune machine usuelle des anciensquaucune description na pu nous faire connaître.Vitruve (2)

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