Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/34

 v. 1; but perhaps reeds were also used, for in Judges, chap. v. v. 14, mention is made of some of the tribe of Zabulon, who "handle the pen of the writer;" David in Psalm, #lv. v. 1, speaks of "the pen of the ready writer;" and Jeremiah, in the passage referred to above, states, that Baruch wrote down all his words with ink in a book; in Ezekiel, chap. ix. V. 11. "And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which bad the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou commandest me;" in the Book Numbers, chap. xxi. v. 14, "Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, what he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon."

The above statements prove very strongly and clearly the obstacles and impediments in the way of the communication and transmission of knowledge among the ancients, and in the dark and middle ages, in so far as the nature of the materials employed for those purposes is concerned. Masses of stone or marble, metal, or blocks or planks of wood, were too heavy and cumbrous to circulate: in order to learn what the inscriptions on them related to, it was necessary that they should be consulted on the spot. Even after better materials were used, such as tablets, parchment, and the papyrus paper, the difficulties and disadvantages were great. Wax tablets might answer for notes, letters, or very short treaties, but scarcely for writings, of any great length. Besides, it appears, that wax tablets were chiefly intended and applied for private use, and never circulated. Parchment never could have been abundant and cheap; and being, at least, during the Greek and Roman period, manufactured exclusively or principally, in one place, other parts of the world must have been dependant for their supply upon it. Papyrus paper was cheaper, and in much greater abundance; but for a supply of it, the world was indebted to Egypt alone; and when the Saracens obtained possession of that country, the supply was cut off, or very much diminished.

We find in Signior Castagnattai's account of the asbestos, a scheme for making books, which from the imperishable nature of their materials, he is for calling them the Books of Eternity. The leaves he proposes to be of the asbestos paper; the covers, of a thicker sort of work, of the same material, and the whole sewed together with thread spun from the same substance. The things to be commemorated in them, were to be written in letters of gold; so that the whole matter, being incombustible and everlastingly permanent, against the forces of all the elements, and subject to no changes from fire, water, or air, must for ever, and always preserve the writings committed to them. He carried the project so far as to make paper from the asbestos, quite soft and tractable, and capable of being thickened or thinned at pleasure, yet in either state, equally resisting fire.

The instruments employed to write with by the ancients, and in the dark and middle ages, of course, varied according to the nature of the materials on which they wrote. They may be divided into two kinds, those which acted immediately, and those which acted by the assistance of fluids; of the first kind, were the wedge and chisel, for inscriptions on stone, wood, and metal, and the style for wax tablets. At first, the bare wood was engraven with an iron style; the overlaying them with wax was a subsequent invention. The style was sometimes made of iron, sometimes of gold, silver, brass, ivory, or even of wood. The iron styles were dangerous weapons, and were, therefore, prohibited by the Romans. Seutonius relates, that Julius Caesar seized the arm of Cassius, one of his murderers, and pierced it with his style. He also tells us, Caligula