This “antique” is on purple vellum, (which is parchment made of calf-skin,) and all the letters are SILVER, (whence the name Codex Argenteus, the “silver book,”) manifestly impressed on the page by a metallic stamp or type, each letter evidently being on a separate stock or handle, and applied by manual pressure. We give a specimen of this style of work. It may be called printing, but can not be denominated manuscript, for that is (literally) “hand-writing,” which this certainly is not.
In our Appendix may be found still earlier instances of this art as practiced by the ancient Romans on a small scale, in signatures, trade-marks, &c.
The Edinburgh review refers to Pliny and Dioscorides, as furnishing directions for the manufacture of ink. The Edinburgh reviewer says “receipts,”—not recognizing the broad distinction between a receipt and a recipe. The former of these two words was originally intended to convey the idea that the person who signs the paper has got something: the latter word, or its representative initial (℞) means simply, “take.”
The directions of Pliny are in the following words:—
C. Plinii Secundi Historia Naturalis.
Lib. XXXV, §25.
ATRAMENTUM.
Atramentum quoque inter factitios erit, quanquam est et terra geminæ originis. Aut enim salsuginis modo emanat, aut terra ipsa sulphurei coloris ad hoc probatur. Inventi sunt pictores, qui e sepulcris carbones infectos effoderent. Importuna haec omnia, et novitia. Fit enim e fuligine pluribus modis, resina vel pice exustis. Propter quod, officinas etiam aedificavere, fumum eum non emittentes. Laudatissimum eodem modo fit e tedis. Adulteratur fornacum balnearumque fuligine, quo ad volumina scribenda utuntur. Sunt qui et vini faecem exsiccatam excoquant; adfirmantque, si ex bono vino faex fuerit, Indici speciem id atramentum praebere. Polygnotus et Micon celeberrimi pictores Athenis, e vinaceis facere: tryginon appellant. Apelles commentus est ex ebore combusto facere, quod elephantinum vocavit. Adportatur et Indicum, inexploratae adhuc inventionis mihi. Fit etiam apud infectores ex flore nigro, qui adhaerescit aheneis cortinis. Fit et e tedis ligno combusto, tritisque in mortario carbonibus. Mira in hoc sepiarum natura: sed ex his non fit. Omne autem atramentum sole perficitur, librarium gummi, tectorum glutino admixto. Quod autem aceto liquefactum est, aegre eluitur.
(TRANSLATION.)
“Ink (or literally) Blacking.—Ink also may be set down among the artificial (or compound) drugs, although it is a mineral derived from two sources. For, it is sometimes developed in the form of a saline efflorescence,—or is a real mineral of sulphureous color—chosen for this purpose. There have been painters who dug up from graves colored coals (CARBON). But all these are useless and new-fangled notions. For it is made from soot in various forms, as (for instance) of burnt rosin or pitch. For this purpose, they have built manufactories not emitting that smoke. The ink of the very best quality is made from the smoke of torches. An inferior article is made from the soot of furnaces and bath-house chimneys. There are some (manufacturers) also, who employ the dried lees of wine; and they DO say that if the lees so employed were from good wine, the quality of the ink is thereby much improved. Polygnotus and Micon, celebrated painters at Athens, made their black paint from burnt grape-vines; they gave it the name of TRYGYNON. Apelles, we are told, made HIS from burnt ivory, and called it elephantina “ivory-black.” Indigo has been recently imported,—a substance whose composition I have not yet investigated. The dyers make theirs from the dark crust that gradually accumulates on brass-kettles. Ink is made also from torches (pine-knots), and from charcoal pounded fine in mortars. “The cuttle-fish” has a remarkable quality in this respect; but the coloring-matter which it produces is not used in the manufacture of ink. All ink is improved by exposure to the sun’s rays. Book-writers’ ink has gum mixed with it,—weaver’s ink is made up with glue. Ink whose materials have been liquified by the agency of an acid is erased with great difficulty.”