. Printing and writing materials: their evolution . lio,or below the surface, so that impressions takenfrom them would be in relief. The ancient Greeks and Romans were acquaintedRome. ^th the art of metal-engraving. The Greeks engraved maps on metal plates by cutting linesbelow the surface. Impressions on vellum orpapyrus could have been taken from these plates,but instead of thus quickly and easily multiplyingcopies, a new engraving seems to have been madefor each map. Thin stencil-plates of wood wererecommended by Quintilian as an aid for boysin learning to write. Cicero perceived that, with
. Printing and writing materials: their evolution . lio,or below the surface, so that impressions takenfrom them would be in relief. The ancient Greeks and Romans were acquaintedRome. ^th the art of metal-engraving. The Greeks engraved maps on metal plates by cutting linesbelow the surface. Impressions on vellum orpapyrus could have been taken from these plates,but instead of thus quickly and easily multiplyingcopies, a new engraving seems to have been madefor each map. Thin stencil-plates of wood wererecommended by Quintilian as an aid for boysin learning to write. Cicero perceived that, withproper care, the letters of the alphabet might beso arranged as to form an infinite number ofsentences; but we have no evidence that hethought of combining them for the purpose ofprinting. ANCIENT RELIEF PROCESSES The old Romans employed wooden and metal wooden andstamps with letters cut in relief. The pottersmarked their manufactures with the name of thecontents of the vessel or of that of the seem also to have used movable types. Some. risctflDp EOMAN STAMPS [From Jackson] of the inscriptions on their clay lamps were madeby impressing consecutively the type of each let-ter. Brass stamps, with letters engraved in relief,have been frequently found in Italy and also in 10 ANCIENT BELIEF PROCESSES France. They are all small in size and containthe names of persons only. Several of theseancient stamps are preserved in the British Mu-seum; two are of curious shape, as shown in theillustration on the preceding page, and have theletters cut into the metal. In using such stamps,the Romans seem to have practised, to someextent, the art of printing with ink. A stamp inthe British Museum Collection is in the form ofa plate, about two inches long and nearly aninch wide. On the face, engraved in relief, aretwo lines of capital letters, cut the reverse way,as would now be necessary for printing. Animpression taken from the stamp would read: CICAECILIHERMIAE. SN. Stamps for which w
Size: 1821px × 1372px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbookbin, bookyear1901
