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Books and Authors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Extract

Our greatest thoughts occur to us at quite unexpected times and in quite unexpected places. We wish to share them with posterity, but we have nothing with us on which to write them down, and by the time we reach home we shall have forgotten all about them. Sometimes indeed in such circumstances we make use of a tree-trunk or blank wall, but the practice has an obvious disadvantage: it is not easy to convey our manuscript to the publisher, and our manuscript may have to wait many centuries before a publisher comes to it.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1934

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References

page 94 note 1 Pliny, , Ep. i. 6.Google Scholar

page 94 note 2 Iliad, vi. 169.Google Scholar It is not explicitly stated that the πίναξ, or wooden slab, was waxed, but the original meaning of γράφω is to ‘scratch’, and letters would be painted rather than scratched on plain wood.

page 95 note 1 Hor. Sat. i. 10. 72.Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 Cat. xlii.

page 95 note 3 Cic. ad Att. xi. 19. The letter in question was probably written on papyrus, but the principle involved is the same.

page 96 note 1 Maunde Thompson, Introduction to Palaeography, ch. iii.

page 96 note 2 Suet, . Aug. 85.Google Scholar

page 96 note 3 Mart. iv. 10.

page 96 note 4 The ordinary word for a book, liber, means bark. It seems that bark was the original writing-material of the Italians: the name for the material was applied to the chief article made of that material, the book, and after the introduction of papyrus, to the article even when made of a different material.

page 97 note 1 The figures are only approximate.

page 97 note 2 Juv. i. 6. The Orestes is fortunately lost.

page 98 note 1 Ovid, Tristia, i. 1. 7.Google Scholar Papyrus was rubbed with cedar oil in order to preserve it from moths. But the oil also gave it a yellow colour, thus adding to the general smartness of the volume.

page 98 note 2 2 Tim. iv. 13.

page 98 note 3 Plin. Ep. i. 13.

page 98 note 4 Mart. iv. 89.

page 99 note 1 Plin. Ep. ii. 1.

page 99 note 2 membrana, pellis.

page 99 note 3 Maunde Thompson.

page 99 note 4 Mart. xiv. 186. See also 184 (Homer), 188 (Cicero), 190 (Livy), 192 (Metamorphosis of Ovid).

page 99 note 5 The Livy and Cicero, even if the Speeches only are meant, must have been inconveniently bulky. Parchment is considerably thicker than paper.

page 99 note 6 Hor. Sat. ii. 3. 1.

page 100 note 1 Plin. Ep. iii. 15.

page 100 note 2 Plin. Ep. v. 3, § 7.

page 100 note 3 Plin. Ep. v. 10.

page 100 note 4 Ov. Tr. i. 7. 19.

page 100 note 5 Cic. ad Att. ii. 20.

page 101 note 1 Mart. ii. 1.

page 101 note 2 Mart. ii. 8.

page 101 note 3 Cic. ad Att. xii. 6.

page 102 note 1 Plin. Ep. iv. 7.

page 102 note 2 Plin. Ep. iii. 5.

page 102 note 3 Mart. xi. 3.

page 102 note 4 Cic. ad Att. xiii. 13.

page 103 note 1 Cic. ad Att. xiii. 12.

page 103 note 2 Birt, Das antike Buchwesen, ch. vii.

page 103 note 3 Mart. i. 117.

page 103 note 4 Hor. Ep. ii. 20. 1.

page 103 note 5 Mart. i. 117.

page 103 note 6 Stat. Silvae, iv. 9.

page 104 note 1 Mart. i. 117.

page 104 note 2 Aul. Gell. ii. 3.

page 104 note 3 Aul. Gell. v. 4.