Sometimes, different layers of wax were laid upon the same tablet, and known as "prima" and "secunda cera ;" for notes, red wax was used, as Cicero (ad Atticum 15, 4, 16, 19) tell us, and from the material used for coloring (minium) came our modern word "Miniature," whilst the use of a similar red (ruber) for titles and superscriptions explains the original meaning of "Rubric." These wax-covered tables were long in use. The twelve wooden boards, still preserved in Hanover, have been already mentioned; as late as the fifteenth century wax tablets were used for sketches. Their great convenience for extemporaneous composition and the facility of rubbing out what was no longer required, caused them to be extensively used long after the introduction of papyrus. Authors used to have their works transcribed into parchment books for their own use, and then gave these tablets to "librarii" or scribes for publication. They must have often been very large and heavy, for in Plautus a schoolboy breaks his teacher's head with such a waxed tablet, and Quinctilian expresses his preference for them, because their size allows of large letters, and they are, therefore, not so trying to the eyes. Occasionally they were ornamented with gold borders, as we read in Propertius, and Cicero mentions that for purposes of correction a piece of red wax was fixed by the side of faulty or obscure phrases.

MATERIALS FOR WRITING.

425

CHAPTER LXXI.

Bark Liber" and "book"-Palm-leaves-now in use.-Bone-Ivory-Hornbook.

Or other woody materials we find that bark was early used for writing purposes. It was, at first, the bark of trees indiscriminately, which served, for instance, the herdsmen of Virgil (Eclog. v. 13) to record their sentimental effusions; afterwards, the thin peel between the outer bark and the wood was carefully separated, and it was this skin-like substance which was first called "liber" (Digest, 32, 52). In the same manner derive Germanic idioms their name for "book" from the earliest material, "beech," Anglo-Saxon boc. This bark was first used for letters, because it was so easily folded, and hence the still prevailing names of "folio," "leaves" of a book, &c., though the leaves of trees, themselves, were also frequently used. Palm-leaves, especially, were cut fresh, written upon whilst pulpy and soft, and then dried and preserved. Pliny (Nat. Hist. XIII. 2) speaks repeatedly of this strange but convenient writingmaterial, and numerous documents of this kind are still in existence. Several copies of the Bible on palm-leaves are scattered over Europe, and a fragment of the Gospel of St. John exists, written on birch-bark. From Mexico, also, hieroglyphic writings on bark have been brought to Europe, or are

19*

still deposited in the city; they resemble strangely similar writings on leaves from the coast of Malabar. In the East Indies, leaves are even now extensively used, especially for sacred writings, which Buddhism forbids to be recorded on animal substances, like parchment, and letters are written on carefully prepared pieces of bark, several yards long and richly ornamented.

Bone has but rarely been used as a writing material, and then mostly appears in the shape of ivory or horn. The Romans used the former for the edicts of the senate, which were marked with black color; they were called "libri elephantini," not from their size, but from their material. The "hornbook" of England and Germany, still extensively used among sailors, is a more modern application of bony substances. Chaucer says of one of his characters, that—

"His fellow had a staffe tipped with horne,

A paire of tables all of iverie,

And a pointell polished fetouslie;

And wrote alwaies the names as he stood,

Of all folke that gave him any goode."

PAPYRUS.

427

CHAPTER LXXII.

PAPYRUS.

Preparation-Terms derived from its use.

THE ancients employed papyrus most generally after metals had gone out of fashion. It was the Cyperus papyrus or Nilecane, growing about twelve feet high, in a triangular stem of about a foot's thickness. This was cut into thin layers, watered, glued or sized, and then smoothed so as to form the so-called Bißlog or Búßlos the modern "Bible." Pliny, however, informs us that the same cane was also found in Syria, on the banks of the Euphrates, and even near Syracuse in the stagnant waters of that vicinity. Most of this earliest kind of paper was made in the city of Alexandria, which grew extremely wealthy by this almost exclusive industry. In the East, it received also the name of "Charta," either from the Greek xaраτтш and ỏ xáρrns or from the Tyrian town Charta, which was once famous for the admirable papyrus it produced. Afterwards the raw material was prepared in Italy and, as Charta Romana, became famous all over the world, partly because of its greater cheapness, partly because it could be written upon on both sides, which was not the case with the Egyptian. Among the Romans it had various names; sometimes it passed as "Charta

Augusta," in honor of Cæsar Augustus, at others as "Charta Liviana," after the empress, but most generally as "Charta Blanca," from its beautiful whiteness. Hence the English term 66 a blank," and the "carte blanche" of the French. Writings on this material were called codices (from caudex) and codicilli (modern codicil) when stitched together, and " volumina" when rolled around a rod or wooden pin—a form which was common also to parchment writings. How admirable this "papyrus" or "paper" served its purpose and bore moisture and dampness in vaults, with impunity, is proved by the recovery of papyrusrolls in Thebes, which are at least fifteen hundred years old, and others in Pompeii and Herculaneum, showing that the frail inner skin of a reed could be as well preserved as the massive stones of gigantic temples. The oldest MS. extant, on papyrus, is a fragment of the Iliad, beautifully written in capitals, and dating probably from the times of the Ptolemies; it was discovered in 1825 on the island of Elephantine in the Upper Nile, by a Frenchman who travelled for Sir Joseph Banks. astonishing durability caused its use to be long continued even after other materials were generally preferred, and in spite of its high cost since the conquest of Egypt by infidel Arabs, when papyrus could no longer be obtained. In Byzant, however, imperial edicts were written on this costly and rare material until far into the middle ages, and the popes also preferred it long for their bulls. The last document on papyrus is believed to be an edict of Charlemagne. The American continent seems to have had its own papyrus; the Spaniards found at least in Mexico certain portions of the Agave Americana---perhaps the leaves only-prepared carefully and covered with an earthy matter to give it greater firmness and elasticity.

Its