SCHWARZ, in his learned dissertation, De ornamentis libra rum apud veteres usilatis, has treated in detail about the external form of the books of the ancients; mixing up, it is true, much that could be dispensed with. Still much remains, even after his laborious enquiry, to be corrected and explained; and the rolls that have been discovered in Herculaneum, will afford a partial enlightenment. Some points have been touched on by Bekker, ad Tibull. iii. 1, and Elegeia Romana, 242.

The material on which the books were generally written, was the fine bark (the liber, the single layers, philyrœ) of the Ægyptian Papyrus, which, at the time of Augustus, had been brought into such a state of perfection, by preparation and bleaching (ablutio), that the quality formerly considered the best (hieratica), was now only ranked as third rate, while that named after Augustus took the first place, and the next to it bore the name of Livia. There were various manufactories of it at Rome: Plin. xiii. 12, 23, says, after speaking of the kinds above-mentioned, Proximum (nomen) amphitheatricœ datum fuerat a confecturœm loco. Excepit hanc Romœ Fannii sagax officina, tenuatamque curiosa interpolatione principalem fecit e plebeia et nomen ei dedit. Quœ non esset ita recurata, in suo mansit umphitheatrica. He mentions eight sorts in all, the commonest of which, the emporetica, was unfit for writing on, and only used for packing with, whence its name (a mercatoribus cognominatata).