History of Books - Wax Tablets

Wax Tablets

Romans used wax-coated wooden tablets (pugillares) upon which they could write and erase by using a stylus. One end of the stylus was pointed, and the other was spherical. Usually these tablets were used for everyday purposes (accounting, notes) and for teaching writing to children, according to the methods discussed by Quintilian in his Institutio Oratoria X Chapter 3. Several of these tablets could be assembled in a form similar to a codex. Also the etymology of the word codex (block of wood) suggest that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.

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Famous quotes containing the words wax and/or tablets:

    We have progressively improved into a less spiritual species of tenderness—but the seal is not yet fixed though the wax is preparing for the impression.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    For Hades is mighty in calling men to account below the earth, and with a mind that records in tablets he surveys all things.
    Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)