back, through which a small leaden rod ran to keep the leaves together. Hesiod's wod^
it is said, were originally written upon tablets of lead, and deposited in the temple of ffe
muses, at Bo?otia. JEneas Poliorceticus, who flourished about seven hundred and twe^
years before the Christian era, relates, that the women conveyed secret intelligence.^
means of small leaden volumes, or rolls of very thin metal, which they wore as ear-rin^
He adds further, that they were beaten with a hammer until they were so pUaUe,
they were sewed up between the soles of the shoes, and that even the messenger wi
carried them, was unconscious of the circumstance. Whilst he slept, they were
out by the person to whom they were addressed, and others replaced without exci
suspicion. In the book of Job, chap. xix. v. 23, 24, is the following text, " Oh that m;
words were now written ! oh that they were printed in a book ! that they were graven
with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." Now, the true meaning of the pasagej
is, according to Parkhurst, that Job wished his words to be cut out of the rock, and
interstices to be filled up with thin plates of metal, in the manner of mosaic.
The celebrated Laws of the twelve tables,* among the Romans, were so caUed from, being written or engraved on twelve slabs, or tablets of brass, or ivory, or oak ; and hung up for public inspection. The laws penal, civil, and ceremonial, among the Greeks, were engraven on triangular tables of brass, which were called Cyrhes. TrithemiiB asserts, that the public monuments of France were anciently inscribed on silver.
By a law among the Romans, the edicts of the senate were directed to be written on tablets of ivory, thence denominated Lihri Elephantini ; and Pliny says, that fitMn want of the teeth of the elephant, which are alone of ivory, they had lately begun to saw the -X-~ bones of that animal. And the same author informs us, that teble-books of wood were in use before the time of Homer. The Chinese, before the invention of paper, engraved with an iron tool upon thin boards, or upon bamboo. In the Sloanian library, at Oxford, there are six specimens of Kufic, or ancient Arabic writing, on boards about two feet in length, ai^d six inches in depth.
The laws on these wooden tablets, as well as those on stone, were inscribed after manner called Boustrophedon, that is, the first line beginning from right to feft, or left to right, and the second in an opposite direction, as ploughmen plough their fu: The Boustrophedon writing, is said to have been disused by the Greeks, about ft hundred years before the Christian era; but it was in use among the Irish, at a later period, by whom it was denominated Ciom/a eite.
It is highly propable, that several of the prophets wrote upon tablets of wood, or similar substance. (See Isaiah xxx. 8., Habakkuk ii. 2.) Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, when required to name his son, " asked for a writing table, and wrote, his name is John," (Luke i. 63.) These table books, the Romans denominated' Pugillares.
Even in the fourth century, the laws of the emperors were written upon wooden tables, painted with white wax, occasionally, both the Greeks and Romans, used a
- The first Dnemvirate began at Rome before Christ 452. Dnring this year of their authority, they compiled t«B
of the twelve tables ; the remaining two were added in the following year. Hespecting their famous code of laws, it was the decisive sentence of Cicero, that they were Justly to be preferred to whole libraries of the philosophers I
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