Copperplate Engraving from Vol. 3 of Le Antichita di Ercolano, an inventory of artistic treasures from the newly discovered Roman city of Herculaneum . Published in 1752 under the patronage of Charles Burbon, King of Naples, these plates were the only means by which the public, until recently, could acquire knowledge of this Roman city frozen in time by the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.