k off the spacing of his lines, a
ruler and a sharpened instrument or pencil with which to draw the lines
upon which he was to write, a penknife for mending his pens, an erasing
knife for corrections, and pumice and agate, or other smooth substance,
for smoothing the scratched surface. The accompanying illustration shows
the mediaeval scribe and his outfit in an extremely interesting manner.
In the background appears the bookcase with its doors open showing the
manner in which books were then kept, laid on their sides and not
standing on their ends. The writer is busily at work upon his manuscript
and scattered around him are the tools of his trade. The inkstand is on
the table before him, the knife on one of the library shelves, the
compasses, a ruler, a ruling pencil, a rubber for smoothing down the
vellum, an open pen case, and other implements are all clearly shown.

CHAPTER III

_The Evolution of the Book_

As already indicated, ancient books were written on rolls of papyrus.
The technical name of such a roll of papyrus was _volumen_ from which we
get our word volume. With the increasing use of vellum as writing
material came the book as we know it, originally called in Latin the
codex, from _caudex_, meaning a pile of boards such as may be seen in
any lumberyard. The other Latin word for book, _liber_, from which we
get our word library and other allied terms, originally meant "bark" and
is a curious preservation of the record of the use of bark as a writing
material, a use, by the way, of which we have very little other
knowledge.

The origin of the book is rather interesting. One of its ancestors, as
we have already seen, is the group of tablets bound together with
thongs. Another was probably the roll itself. When the manuscript roll
was read it was necessary in order to handle it properly and save it
from damage to reroll the part of the roll which had been read as the
student proceeded. The consequence was that when the reading was
finished, the volume was left rolled up in reverse order. Consequently,
before being replaced, the volume, if treated properly, had to be rolled
back into its original position, a necessity which careless or lazy
people found somewhat burdensome. It was discovered, however, that this
could be avoided by folding the roll back and forth, creasing it in the
spaces between the columns which were written at right angles to the
length of the roll, the result being something l