ISBN: 9780266229582

Excerpt from The Manufacture of PaperClay Tablets. - The ordinary transactions of daily life, the writings of literary and scientific men, and all that was worthy of note in the history o… Plus…

Excerpt from The Manufacture of PaperClay Tablets. - The ordinary transactions of daily life, the writings of literary and scientific men, and all that was worthy of note in the history of such nations as Chaldea and Assyria have come down to us also, inscribed on clay tablets, which were rendered durable by careful baking. On a tablet of clay, one of the earliest specimens of writing in existence, now preserved in the British Museum, is recorded a proposal of marriage, written about 1530, from one of the Pharaohs, asking for the hand of the daughter of a Babylonian king.Waxed Boards - Bone, ivory, plates of metal, lead, gold, and brass, were freely used, and at an early period wooden boards covered with wax were devised by the Romans. In fact, any material having a soft impressionable surface was speedily adopted as a medium for the permanent expression of men''s fancy, so that it is not strange to find instances of documents written on such curious substances as animal skins, hides, dried intestines, and leather. The works of Homer, preserved in one of the Egyptian libraries in the days of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, were said to have been written in letters of gold on the skins of serpents.Leaves, Bark - The first actual advance in the direction of paper, as commonly understood, was made when the leaves and bark of trees were utilised. The latter especially came speedily into favour, and the extensive use of the inner bark (liber) made rapid headway. Manuscripts and documents written on this liber are to be found in many museums.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. R. W. Sindall, Books, The Manufacture of Paper (Classic Reprint) Books, 1KG Limited<