ARUNDEL MARBLES, are certain pieces of sculpture, consisting of ancient statues, busts, mutilated figures, altars, inscriptions, ' Sze., the remains of a more extensive collection, L formed in the early part of the seventeenth T century by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, 4 and presented in 1067 to the University of Oxford, by his grandson. The earl collected these fine specimens during a residence in Italy about 1613.
We learn from catalogues, that the Arunde lian collection, when entire, contained 37 statues, 128 busts, and 250 inscribed marbles, exclusive of sarcophagi, altars, fragments, and the inestimable gems.
Arundel House and gardens were converted into streets about the year 1678, when it was determined to dispose of the statues by sale. One portion, consisting principally of busts, was purchased by Lord Pembroke ; these are now at Wilton. A second was purchased by Sir William Fermi' (the father of the first Earl of Pomfret,) who removed them to his seat at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire. Henrietta Louisa, countess dowager of Pom fret, in 1755, transferred these marbles to the University of Oxford, where they became again united to the inscribed marbles which had descended to Henry, second son of the former and sixth Duke of Norfolk, and had been pre sented by him to the University, in 1667. A few statues and broken fragments were given to a Mr. Arundel, a relation of the Duke of Norfolk ; one or two of these were subse quently given to the Earl of Burlington, and went to Chiswick House. A few elegant re mains were carried to Mrs. Temple's seat at Moor Park, near Farnham, in Surrey. The cameos and intaglios finally became the pro perty of the Dukes of Marlborough ; and are now known by the name of the Marlborough Gems.
The greater part of the Greek inscriptions in the Arundel collection now at Oxford were obtained at Smyrna. They arrived in Eng land in 1627, soon after which they were care fully examined by the learned Selden, who in 1628 published his ' Marmora Arundelliana,' a thin quarto volume, in which twenty-nine Greek and ten Latin inscriptions of this col lection are deciphered and illustrated.
The Arundel and Pomfret marbles are at present preserved at Oxford in two rooms belonging to the public schools, beneath the picture gallery. Of the Arundel portion, that which the University places at the head of its collection is the Greek inscription known by the name of the Parke Chronicle. Among the more important marbles of the Pomfret donation are the colossal torso (for that por tion only is antique) of a Minerva Galeata, restored as a statue by Guelfi ; a Venus Ves tita, or Leda; Terpsichore ; a young Hercules; an Athleta, which has been called Antinons ; a female figure, unrestored, of early Greek work ; and three statues of senators, one of which is usually considered as Cicero.
AS. The Roman As was a weight, consist ing of twelve unthe or ounces ; it was also called libre,libella, and rondo, or the pound.
As, assis, or Assarius was likewise the name of a Roman coin of eopper, or rather of mixed metal, which varied both in weight and com position at different periods of the common wealth ; but which originally actually weighed a pound, whence it was called As libralis, and sometimes also 2Es grave. The earliest Ases were cast probably in imitation of the Etrus can coins, which the Romans appear to have copied. In the British Museum there are even four Ases united together, as they were taken from the mould or matrix, in which many were cast at once. In most of the Ases preserved in our cabinets, the edge shows evidently where they were severed from each other, and where the piece at the mouth of the mould was cut off. From being cast, it will be judged that they are not very correctly sized. As the As fell in weight, the smaller divisions were not cast, but struck.
The coined divisions of the As were nume rous, including halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, twelfths, &c. There were also larger coins, representing various multiples of the As.