Lead rolls.For the most part they consist either of monetary accounts, or else of formulae of imprecations, curses devoting some enemy to punishment at the hands of the gods. We know however from the evidence of classical writers that famous poems and other important literary works were occasionally preserved in the form of these inscribed tin or lead rolls. Pausanias, for example, tells us that during his visit to Helicon in Boeotia he was shown the original manuscript of Hesiod's Works and Days written on plates of lead; see Paus. IX. 31. Again at IV. 26, Pausanias records the discovery at Ithome in Messenia of a bronze urn (hydria) which contained a manuscript of the "Mysteries of the Great Deities" written on Tin rolls."a thinly beaten plate of tin, which was rolled up like a book," κασσίτερον ἐληλασμένον ἐς τὸ λεπτότατον, ἐπείλικτο δὲ ὥσπερ τὰ βιβλία. This method of writing would be quite different from the laborious method of cutting inscriptions on bronze plates with a chisel and hammer, or with a graver.
A scribe could write on the soft white metal with a sharp stilus almost as easily and rapidly as if he were using pen and ink on paper, and the manuscript thus produced would have the advantage of extreme durability.
We may indeed hope that even now some priceless lost work of early Greece may be recovered by the discovery of similar lead rolls to those which Cesnola found in Cyprus.
| Gold amulets. |
Gold amulets.Some very beautiful little Greek manuscripts, written on thin plates of gold, have also been discovered at various places. The most remarkable of these were intended for amulets, and were rolled up in little gold or silver cylinders and worn round the neck during life. After death they were placed with the body in the tomb. Several of these, discovered in tombs in the district of Sybaris in Magna Graecia, are inscribed with fragments from the mystic Orphic hymns, and give directions to the soul as to what he will find and what he must do in the spirit-world.
| Petelia tablet. |
Petelia tablet.The most complete of these little gold manuscripts, usually known as the Petelia tablet, is preserved in the gem-room in the British Museum. The manuscript consists of thirteen hexameter lines written on a thin plate of pure gold measuring 1½ inches by 2⅝ inches in width; it dates from the third century B.C.[[2]]
In classical times, manuscripts were of two different forms; first, the book form, πίναξ, πινάκιον or δελτίον, in Latin codex (older spelling caudex); and secondly the roll, κύλινδρος, βίβλος or βιβλίον, Latin volumen[[3]].
| Waxed tablets. |
Waxed tablets.Manuscripts on tablets. Both the Greeks and the Romans used very largely tablets (πίνακες, Lat. tabulae or cerae) of wood covered with a thin coating of coloured wax, on which the writing was formed with a sharp-pointed stilus (γραφὶς) of wood, ivory or bronze. The wax was coloured either black or red in order that the writing scratched upon it might be clearly visible. The reverse end of the stilus was made flat or in the shape of a small ball so that it could be used to make corrections by smoothing out words or letters which had been erroneously scratched in the soft wax.