Page 90 - Manual of Roman Everyday Writing Volume 2: Writing Equipment
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Further reading and images:
Eckardt 2021; Feugère 2006; Pugsley 2003, 95–99
Also see: fig. 2 (Pompeii still lifes); fig. 60 (Maria Saal).
Selected ancient literary evidence:
Juvenal (3.203–207) mentions a cista that contains Greek books, but the
shape is not described. In his tenth Satire schoolboys are accompanied by
slaves carrying narrow book bags (10.114–117). Catullus (68.33–36) mentions
a capsula, again no description, and (14.17–20) scrinia. Pliny the Elder (NH
16.229) tells us that capsae and scrinia were made of beechwood and Ovid
(Tr. 1.1.105–110) says that scrinia are round (curva). In Horace’s first Satire
(Sat. 1.4.21–23) capsae is used for ‘writings’ or ‘books’. In the letter Epist.
1.20.1–3 he mentions the lock of the book bucket, from which the new book
longs to escape (i.e. to be published); note the book in a similar situation
in Martial 1.3.1–2. In Valerius Maximus Mem. 6.5.6 a scrinium contains
documents rather than books.
d) Accessories to help with ordination: compasses/
divider (circinus), measures and lead discs
There are a number of objects that would have been used to ensure
that the text ran along parallel and equally distributed lines.
From literary sources we know that discs of lead were used to trace
lines on papyrus. They are mentioned in a number of dedicatory
poems listing writing equipment in the Anthologia Palatina (6.62–
66), and Catullus (22.8) expresses his disdain over Suffenus, a
very prolific poet who used only the most sophisticated writing
Fig. 66: Metal objects including the lock-plate of a scrinium from materials, including papyrus and parchment that featured lines
grave no. 700 in Emona (Slovenia), 1st century CE. Mestni muzej drawn with lead and smoothed with pumice stone. Two lead objects
Ljubljana, inv. 510:LJU;0033272, 510:LJU;0033122 and 510:LJU;0032711. from the port of Ostia may have been used for a similar purpose
© Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, photo by Andrej Peunik. (or for marking wooden barrels as suggested by Drescher 1989).
