Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . hatpopular pulpiteer. Since mention has been made more than onceof reading and libraries, it is well to realise the formcommonly taken by books. We must not think ofthe modern bound volume standing on its shelf oropen in the hand. At our date any books made upin the form of leaves — or what the Romans calledtablet form — consisted only of some four or sixpages. The regular shape for a book was that of a 336 LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD chap. roll, or, if the work was a large one, it might consistof several such rolls or sections. The materialwas either p
Life in the Roman world of Nero and StPaul . hatpopular pulpiteer. Since mention has been made more than onceof reading and libraries, it is well to realise the formcommonly taken by books. We must not think ofthe modern bound volume standing on its shelf oropen in the hand. At our date any books made upin the form of leaves — or what the Romans calledtablet form — consisted only of some four or sixpages. The regular shape for a book was that of a 336 LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD chap. roll, or, if the work was a large one, it might consistof several such rolls or sections. The materialwas either paper — in its original sense of papyrus — orthe skin known as parchment. PapjTus was naturallythe cheaper and the less durable. Prepared sheetsof a given length and breadth — the pages — werewritten upon and then pasted to each other sideby side until a long stretch was formed. The lastsheet was then attached to a thin roller, commonlyof wood, answering to that used in a modern wall-map. Round a roll of any pretensions there was. Fig. 96. — Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyers Pompeii.) wrapped a cover of coloured parchment, red, yellow,or purple. The ends of the roll were rubbed smoothwith pumice-stone and dyed, and a tag or label wasaffixed to bear the name of the author and the number of such rolls, related in subject or author-ship, were placed on end in a round box, with thelabels upwards ready for inspection. In the librarysuch a box would stand in a pigeon-hole or section ofshelf, from which it might be carried where the rolls themselves lay in a heap horizon-tally in a pigeon-hole without a box, but this wasmanifestly a less convenient practice. To keep away xvn BOOKS 337 the bookworms cedar-oil was rubbed upon them, givingthem a j^ellowish tinge. The reader, taking the body of the roll in onehand, begins to unwind the long strip with the reading the first column or page thus exposed,he mechanically re-winds that portion, w
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