Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/31

 22 INTRODUCTION.

The Ceylonese sometimes make use of the pahn leaf, and sometimes of a kindpf paper, made of bark, but most generally employ the leaf of the talipot tree. From tipge leaves, which are of an immense size, they cut out slips, from a foot to a foot and a U^ long, and about a couple of inches broad. A fine pointed steel pencil, like a bodk^ and set in a wooden or ivory handle, is employed to write or rather to engrave their letters ; and in order to render the writing distinct and permanent, they rub them odp with oil, mixed with pulverized charcoal. They afterwards, string several slips togeth«i by a piece of twine passed through them, and attach them to a board, in the same way a^ we file newspapers. Dr. Francis Buchanan, in his Essay on the Religion and Literature^ of the Burmese, informs us, that in their more elegant books, the Burmese write on i sheets of ivory, or on a very fine white pahnyra leaf.

Captain Percival, in' his Account of Ceylon, states, that in those letters, which were j sent by the King of Candy to the Dutch government, the writing was inclosed in leaves f of beaten gold, in the shape of a cocoa-tree leaf. This was rolled up in a cover richly -4^ ■ ornamented, and almost hid in a profusion of pearls, and other precious stones. The whole was inclosed in a box of silver or ivory, which was sealed with the Eong's great i, seal. The Arabs, and other Oriental nations, are used to wrap up their sacred books, , in rich cases of brocaded silk, or some such other rich material.

The mode of writing on leaves, seems to have been superseded by the use of the bark, a material employed in every age and country. The outer bark was seldom used, being too coarse, and rough. The inner bark was preferred, especially that of the lime tree. The bark of this tree was called by the Romans, liber, hence Uber, the Latin name for a book. In order that these bark books might be conveniently carried, they were rolled up, and in that form called volumen, this name was afterwards applied to rolls of paper and parchment, hence, the word volume, applied to modern books, though of a different shape.

To the various modes of writing, and the materials employed by the ancients, the etymology of many words now in use may be traced. Besides the papyrus, the Egyptian^ often used, for the same purpose, the white rind between the bark and wood of the majda beech, ehn, and linden trees ; hence bark and book, in Latin, is signified by one woi The very word Bible, which means by way of eminence, [the Book] is derived fron the Greek word Byblos, (a city in Syria) a book, but which originally signified the imdK bark of a tree. ^f.

Ancient manuscripts in bark are very scarce, but the use of bark for books, siSft prevails among the nations of the East. The custom of making books from ba*, prevailed amongst our Scandinavian and Saxon ancestors : the bark of die beech tree was most commonly used. The primitive meaning of the Anglo-Saxon word boc is the beech tree ; its secondary meaning, a book — ^and hence, our word, book. There are still extant some letters, and even love-letters, written by the ancient Scandinavians on pieces of bark. A very curious library of the kind, was discovered some time ago among the Calmucs ; the books were very long and narrow ; the leaves of thick baik, varnished over ; the writing white, on a black ground. In the early part of the first American war, our trans-atlantic brethren were advocates of returning to this among other primitive customs. They suggested, says Dr. Franklin, the use of bark, for the drawing

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