DOMESTIC UTENSILS

THE immense number and variety of statues, lamps, urns, articles of domestic use, in metal or earthenware, &c., discovered at Herculaneum and Pompeii, have rendered the Museum at Naples an inexhaustible treasury of information relative to the private life of the ancient Italians. To give an adequate description of the richness and variety of its contents would far exceed the whole extent of this work, much more the small space which still remains; but that space cannot be better occupied than in describing some few articles which possess an interest from the ingenuity of their construction, the beauty of their workmanship, or their power to illustrate ancient usages or ancient authors.

Writing implements are among the most important of the latter class, on account of the constant mention of them, as well as of the influence which the comparative ease or difficulty of producing copies of writing is always found to exert over society. On this head there is no want of information. The implements used are frequently mentioned, especially in familiar writings, as the letters of Cicero, and their forms have been tolerably ascertained from various fragments of ancient paintings.

It is hardly necessary to state that for manuscripts of any length, and such as were meant to be preserved, parchment or vellum, and a vegetable tissue manufactured from the rush papyrus, were in use. The stalk of this plant consists of a number of thin concentric coats, which being carefully detached, were pasted crossways one over the other, like the warp and woof in woven manufactures, so that the fibres ran longitudinally in each direction, and opposed in each an equal resistance to violence. The surface was then polished with a shell, or some hard smooth substance. The ink used was a simple black liquid, containing no mordant to give it durability, so that the writing was easily effaced by the application of a sponge. The length of the Greek papyri is said to vary from eight to twelve inches : the Latin often reach sixteen : the writing is in columns, placed at right angles to the length of the roll. The method of reading them will be understood from the woodcut, in which is represented one open, and, below it, another closed. To each of them is appended a sort of ticket, which served as a title.

Papyri and Tabulae.

Hence the end of the roll, or volume (volumen), was called frons, a term of frequent recurrence in Ovid and Martial, and not always rightly understood. Hence, also, when we meet with the ,expression, gemina frons, we must understand that the volume had a ticket at each end. The open book which stands beside them is one of those which were composed of two tables or pages, and served for memorandums, letters, pages, other writings, not intended to be preserved. They were composed of leaves of wood or metal coated over with wax, upon which the ancients wrote with a stylus, or iron pen, or Point rather, for it was a solid sharp-pointed instrument, some inches in length, like a lady's stiletto upon a large scale. In the middle of each leaf there appears to have been a button, called umbilicus, intended to prevent the pages touching when closed, and obliterating the letters traced on the yielding wax. The tablets here represented would be called twofold, as consisting only of two leaves : in the next cut may be seen another sort, consisting of several leaves united at the back with hinges or rings. In Latin they were called tabelloe, and the epithets, duplices, triplices, quintuplices, served to mark the number of the leaves.

Beside them stands a double inkstand, intended probably to contain both black and red ink. The former was made either of lampblack or some other sort, of charcoal, or from the cuttlefish, and was called atramentum. As it contained no mordant, and was readily obliterated by moisture, it could be used for writing upon ivory tablets; and it has been conjectured that some sorts of paper were covered with a wash, or varnish, to facilitate the discharge of the old writing, and render the paper serviceable a second time. Red ink, miltum, was prepared from cinnabar. The reed, cut to a point, which lies beside the inkstand, is the instrument used in writing with ink before the application of quills. It was called calamus, with the distinctive epithets chartarius, or scriptorius. The open papyrus explains how manuscripts were read, rolled up at each end, so as to show only the column of writing upon which the student was intent. At the other side is a purse, or bag, to hold the reed, penknife, and other writing instruments.

The next cut represents, besides a set of tablets bound up, a single one hanging from a nail. Such, probably, were those suspended at Epidaurus, containing remedies by which the sick had been cured, by the perusal of which Hippocrates is said to have profited in the compilation of his medical works. It also contains, besides a papyrus similar to those described, a hexagonal inkstand, with a ring to pass the finger through, upon which there lies an instrument resembling a reed, but the absence of the knots, or joints, marks it to be a stylus. Another of these instruments leans against the open book. These were made of every sort of material; sometimes with the precious metals, but usually of iron, and on occasion might be turned into formidable weapons. It was with his stylus that Caesar stabbed Casca, in the arm, when attacked in the senate by his murderers; and Caligula employed some person to put to death a senator with the same instruments. In the reign of Claudius women and boys were searched to ascertain whether there were styles in their graphiarioe thecoe, or pen-cases. Stabbing with the pen, therefore, is not merely a metaphorical expression. Tablets such as those here represented, were the diurni, or day-books, breviarii rationum, or account-books. When they were full, or when the writing on them was no longer useful, the wag was smoothed, and they were ready again for other service.

The cut above, besides an inkstand, represents an open book. The thinness and yellowish colour of the leaves, which are tied together with ribbon, denote that it was made of parchment or vellum.

Below is a cylindrical box, called scrinium and capsa, or capsules, in which the manuscripts were placed vertically, the titles at the top. Catullus excuses himself to Manlius for not having sent him the required verses, because he had with him only one box of his books. It is evident that a great number of volumes might be comprised in this way within a small space; and this may tend to explain the smallness of the ancient libraries at least of the rooms which are considered to have been such. Beside the box are two tablets, which, from the money-bag and coins scattered about, had probably been used in reckoning accounts.

Scrinium and Capsa.

No perfect papyri, but only fragments, have been found at Pompeii. At Herculaneum, up to the year 1825, 1756 had been obtained, besides many others destroyed by the workmen, who imagined them to be mere sticks of charcoal. Most of them were found in a suburban villa, in a room of small dimensions, ranged in presses round the sides of the room, in the centre of which stood a sort of rectangular bookcase. Sir Humphry Davy, after investigating their chemical nature, arrived at the conclusion that they had not been carbonised by heat, but changed by the long action of air and moisture; and he visited Naples in hopes of rendering the resources of chemistry available towards deciphering these long-lost literary treasures. His expectations, however, were not fully crowned with success, although the partial efficacy of his methods was established; and he relinquished the pursuit at the end of six months, partly from disappointment, partly from a belief that vexatious obstacles were thrown in his way by the jealousy of the persons to whom the task of unrolling had been intrusted. About five hundred volumes have been well and neatly unrolled. It is rather remarkable that, as far as we are acquainted, no manuscript of any known standard work has been found, nor indeed any production of any of the great luminaries of the ancient world. The most celebrated person, of whom any work has been found, is Epicurus, whose treatise, De Natures, has been successfully unrolled. This and a few other treatises have been published. The library in which this was found appears to have been rich in treatises on the Epicurean philosophy. The only Latin work which it contained was a poem, attributed to Rabirius, on the war of C sar and Antony.

A curious literary monument has been found in the shape of a calendar. It is cut on a square block of marble, upon each side of which three months are registered in perpendicular columns, each headed by the proper sign of the zodiac. The information given may be classed under three heads,astronomical, agricultural, and religious. The first begins with the name of the month; then follows the number of days; then the Hones, which in eight months of the year fall on the fifth day, and were thence called quintanae in the others on the seventh, and were therefore called septimanae. The ides are not mentioned, because seven days always elapsed between them and the Hones. The number of hours in the day and night is also given, the integral part being given by the usual numerals, the fractional by an S for semissis, the half, and by small horizontal lines for the quarters. Lastly, the sign of the zodiac in which the sun is to be found is named, and the days of the equinoxes and of the summer solstice are determined : for the winter solstice we read, Hiemis initium, the beginning of winter. Next the calendar proceeds to the agricultural portion, in which the farmer is reminded of the principal operations which are to be done within the month. It concludes with the religious part, in which, besides indicating the god under whose guardianship the month is placed, it notes the religious festivals which fell within it, and warns the cultivator against neglecting the worship of those deities, upon whose favour and protection the success of his labours was supposed mainly to depend.