648 MATERIALS TO WRITE UPON BEFORE INVENTION OF PRINTIJ^G. 



series of exploits." In Rome the use of columns and of tablets of 

 bronze for inscribing laws followed that of wood. AVe find in all the 

 museums of Europe inscriptions upon metals (fig. 2?}). One of the 

 most remarkable is the famous bronze tablet preserved in the Museum 

 of Lyons, containing the address delivered in the year 48 by the 

 Emperor Claudius.^ 



Lead beaten thin and reduced to leaves served the same purpose. 

 Job laments his inability to write a discourse upon sheets of lead. In 

 Greece lead thus prepared was quite frequently used. Suetonius 

 terms these leaves of lead pluml)ea charta ; '^ tablets were also made 

 of it, which were employed all through the Middle Ages. 



Fig. 'li'i. Gallic inscription in dotted characters on 

 bronze found near Dijon. (Diet. Arch, de la Gaule.) 



It seems unnecessary to cite coins and medals. They always bore 

 a legend, either symbolic or explained bv letters. 



WOOD, BARK, LEAVES. 



Wood as a material used to engrave and write upon is perhaps more 

 ancient than stone, but there is no trace of it left from the prehis- 

 toric period. It was split into thin boards, upon which were traced 

 in different colored inks the chai-acters of the language. The Egyp- 

 tians must have proceeded in this manner, if one may judge by a syca- 

 more board discovered in 18:57 in the lliird ])yi-ainid of Memphis, 

 which, according to the Egyptologists, dates back more than five 

 thousand years. 



The ancient laws of Solon and of Draco were likewise traced u])on 

 wooden tables. They were called *' axones."' These tallies joined in 

 the shape of quadrangular prisms and crossed by an axis, were first 

 set up perpendicularly in the citadel, where, revolving by the slight- 



oPolyhius, III, P,Vi. 



& Allmer (A.) et Bissard (P.). Musee de Lyon. Iiis( riiitiinis .•inti(|ii('s. Tiyoii, 

 1888 seq. gr. 8°, t. 1. \k 58 seq. and 1 plate. 

 <^ Suetoniu.s. Twelve Ctesars. Nero, C 20. 



