Excerpt from The George a Hearn Collection of Carved Ivories
Although ivory was employed freely for articles used in religious and domestic life, no reference need be made here to such objects anterior to the Consular Diptychs, or writing tablets, which were introduced in the days of the Roman Consulate, continuing from the fourth to the middle of the sixth century, a period of about a hundred and fifty years. Although only about fifty of these exist to-day, preserved in European Museums, they throw light on the customs of the Romans and are of great historical importance. These Diptychs are two-fold ivories, hinged together, carved on the outside, often with the Consul’sname and portrait. They were used as books for recording memoranda, the reverse sides being hol lowed slightly and coated with wax upon which the records were inscribed with a stylus, and were given away by the Consuls on their inauguration in office to the senators and influential friends. The number of these diptychs was so considerable that only those intended for friends in exalted position were made of ivory, others of simpler design and smaller, were often of bone.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This 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.
