. Pompeii; its history, buildings and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city, with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations and also an itinerary for visitors . hstands beside them is one of those which were composed oftwo tables or pages, and served for memorandums, letters,and other writings, not intended to be preserved. They werecomposed of leaves of wood or metal coated over with wax,upon which the ancients wrote with a stylus, or iron pen, orpoint rather, for it was a solid sharp-pointed instrument, some 534 POMPEII. inches in length, like a ladys
. Pompeii; its history, buildings and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city, with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations and also an itinerary for visitors . hstands beside them is one of those which were composed oftwo tables or pages, and served for memorandums, letters,and other writings, not intended to be preserved. They werecomposed of leaves of wood or metal coated over with wax,upon which the ancients wrote with a stylus, or iron pen, orpoint rather, for it was a solid sharp-pointed instrument, some 534 POMPEII. inches in length, like a ladys stiletto upon a large scale. Idthe middle of each leaf there a2)pears to have been a button,called 6jxcfia/\6<^, umbilicus, intended to prevent the pages touch-ing when closed, and obliterating the letters traced on theyielding wax. The tablets here represented would be calledSltttvxov, twofold, as consisting only of two leaves : in thenext cut may be seen another sort, consisting of several leaves(ttoXv-tttvxov), united at the back with hinges or rings. InLatin they were called tahulce, or tahellcp, and the epithets,duplices, triplices, quintuplices, served to mark the numberof the Tabulaj, Calamus, and Papyrus. Beside them stands a double inkstand, intended probablyto contain both black and red ink. The former was madeeither of lampblack or some other sort of charcoal, or fromthe cuttlefish, and was called atramentum. As it containedno mordant, and was readily obliterated by moisture, itcould be used for writing upon ivory tablets; and it hasbeen conjectured that some sorts of paper were coveredwith a wash, or varnish, to facilitate the discharge of theold writing, and render the paper serviceable a secondtime. Red ink, miltum, was prepared from cinnabar. Thereed, cut to a point, which lies beside the inkstand, is theinstrument used in writing with ink before the application oiquills. It was called calamus, with the distinctive ej)ithetschartarius, or scriptorius
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidpompeiiitshi, bookyear1887
