MATERIALS TO WRITE UPON BEFORE INVENTION OF PRINTING. 651 



LINEN AN)) OTHER TEXTILES. 



It was natural enough that textiles should be used foi" the tracing of 

 characters with a pencil or calaniite. Their tlexihility and the facility 

 of preserving them adapted them to it. Most of the '* books of the 

 dead " which the Egyptians placed in the sarcophagi were written 

 upon lineiL Tn (Ireece, Italy, Kome, and the Orient textiles served 

 the same purpose. The Sanniites hatl a ritual written in that 

 manner, which served to regulate the order of the sacrifices before 

 engaging in a wai'. 



At Rome the land records preserved among the archives were 

 written upon linen year by year and kept in the temple of Moneta 

 at the capital," as well as the libri lintei, a list of the magistrates. 

 Textiles were used even for transcinbing literary woi'ks. Martianus 

 Capella designates them under the name of carbasiiui volumina. 

 Sidonius Apollinaris wrote his poems upon pieces of linen. During 

 the middle ages this custom still continued, for an abbot recom- 

 mends his monks to copy the works of St. Anastasius upon their 

 clothes in case paper should be lacking.'' In the Orient silk was 

 utilized for the same purpose. " In France," says (ireraud, '' up to 

 the last century, it was the practice in the universities to have those 

 copies of a thesis which were intended for personages of importance 

 printed on satin.'' 



We have spoken incidentally of tablets; they were made of wood, 

 lead, ivory, and even parchment, and, excepting those of lead, were 

 coated with wax, and written upon with a point or stylus. To 

 preserve them, they were placed together and tied into bundh's. In 

 order that the writing should not l)e obliterated vmder pressure or l»y 

 rubbing, the edges of the tablet had a slight projection to which the 

 wax flowed; so that the engraved characters were not effaced when 

 the tablets were pressed together. I^ater the tablets formed a di])- 

 tych; that is to say, they were composed of two tablets united b}' a 

 hinge. Closed, they jnvsented two surfaces, plain or ornamented, 

 but without writing; open, one could write upon Ijoth of the wax- 

 covered inner surfaces. 



LEATHER, VARIOUS KINDS OF SKIN, PARCHMENT. 



With the advent of skins we enter upon a period in which writing 

 becomes a more common practice; documents multiply, works of the 

 imagination and historical annals assume a new form. It is no longer 

 tradition alone which transmits poems, legends, and recollections. By 



a Lafaye (G.) : Article Liber, Diction des autiq. grecciues et rouiaiiies de 

 Dareiuber;.; et Sagiio. Paris, Haeliette, 4°. 



6 Lalaiine (LiuL). Curlosites bibliograi)lii(iiU's. I'aris, ISuT, 10°, {». 10. 

 Geraud. Op. cit., p. 23. 



