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It has also been suggested that the loop handles often attached to
the side of metal inkwells were used to tie them to cases containing
pens, and one type of metal inkwell seems to have had a penholder
attached (Type Boeselager, Eckardt 2018, 87–88).
Further reading and images:
Boeselager 1989; Duvauchelle 2012; Eckardt 2018, 38–39; Fünfschilling
2012, 184–186; Schaltenbrand Obrecht 2012, 27
Also see: fig. 1 (Atimetus/Epaphra); fig. 15 (Codex Amiatinus); fig. 61 (Salona)
Fig. 59: Two late-Roman leather cases with preserved Selected ancient literary evidence:
stili and reed pens from Antinoë (Egypt). From Suetonius (Claud. 35) says that Claudius was so suspicious that he had
Fünfschilling 2012, 185 fig. 31. © Augusta Raurica. writing sets taken away from attendants and scribes. A theca libraria and
a graphiarium are mentioned as gifts by Martial (14.20–21). Ammianus
Marcellinus (28.4.13) mentions scribes with pen cases taking notes during
a banquet as part of the decadence of Rome’s nobility. Mention of a theca
that holds five pens in Diocletian’s Edict on Prices (Ed. Diocl. 10.17).
Leather case for stylus tablets
Wax tablets seem to have been carried in some sort of case with
handles or a sling as is for example depicted on the Neumagen
school relief (fig. 35) and on the side of the funerary altar of Q.
Aemilius Rufus from Salona.
At least two finds have been identified as leather cases for tablets,
one from Vindolanda and one from Vindonissa (Volken and Volken
2006), and there are further possible examples from the UK (e.g.
London: Hill and Rowsome 2011, 553–554; Mould 2012, 42–43).
Fig. 60: Roman funerary relief from Maria Saal (Austria), They are almost identical, shaped like a small box, probably with
showing a man writing with one foot on a scrinium a longer piece of leather on one side that served as the lid. There
and holding a theca calamaria. © Ortolf Harl. are no signs of handles. The example from Vindonissa can be
