Faustini fugis in sinum? Sapisti.
Cedro nunc licet ambules perunctus,
Et frontis gemino decens honore
Pictis luxurieris umbilicis:
Et te purpura delicata velet,
Et cocco rubeat superbus index. L. iii. ep. 2.
The superbus index in the last verse, curiously illuminated with scarlet, was undoubtedly the title of the book; but to what part of it it was annexed has hitherto been difficult to ascertain: for as (according to the paintings under consideration) it was inscribed on a detached piece of paper or parchment, it must soon have been lost from the book; especialty if the latter had suffered by damps, or any other injuries similar to those, that have affected the volumes found in Herculaneum, of which not only the title, but even the ends of the umbilici, tho' consisting of more solid materials, as horn, ivory, &c. are intirely destroyed: so that no light could be had from the original antiquities with relation to this point. The only means, whereby the connoisseurs could form any conjectures in this case, must have been, I presume, from the fashion of books among the ancients, viz. their being long scrolls rolled round upon a stick with ornaments at each end, as described in the epigram produced above. This form required, that the books should be laid at their length upon the shelves, where they were deposited with either their side, or one of their ends, appearing outwardly. Now of these two positions the latter, which exposed the extremity of the umbilicus to view, might be thought (all circumstances duly considered) the most convenient. To this part therefore it might with probability be conjectured, that the index or title was fastened; but the paintings mentioned above plainly demonstrate, that it actually was so.
Mons. Dacier says[45], that the titles of books were anciently inscribed upon the leathern covers, wherein they were wrapt, and which, by the means of thongs fastened to them, kept the volumes close and compact together. If that learned gentleman had supported this fact by proper evidences, then it must have been concluded, upon the joint authority of such evidences, and of the antiquities under consideration, that the practice of the ancients was, besides the title on the sides of the volume, to affix another on a label at one of its extremities. And indeed this additional notation (whatever we determine concerning its usefulness, while the books lay on a shelf in a library) must have been very necessary, when such books stood upright in a capsula (like those in the painting before us), where no part of them, but one end alone, could possibly be seen.
VIII.
Some pieces of fine paper, coloured red on one side, and black on the other, found upon the breast of a skeleton. Signor Paderni told me, that they had been viewed with great admiration by such of the virtuosi, as he had shewn them to; and that their admiration proceeded from those fragments appearing not to be of the charta papyracea, but of that of silk, cotton, or linen. And indeed, if they should prove to have been made of any of the materials last mentioned, it would contradict the generally received opinion (according to [46]Montfaucon), that paper of silk or cotton, denoted by the common appellation of charta bombycina, was first found out in the 9th century; as that composed of linen rags (ex linteolis contritis et aquâ maceratis, as Pancirollus[47] expresses it) was about the 12th; and that the former supplied the place of the charta papyracea in the east, as the latter superseded the use of it in the western parts of the world.