much elegance of design on the outer side, being hinged or strung together like a small book, so that the writing within was protected from injury: such tablets are sometimes called erroneously diptychs, bearing much resemblance in form to the objects of religious use properly designated by that term. Montfaucon has given a good example of these medieval tablets of ivory, formed with six leaves, the outer ones carved with subjects of romance, such as the tale of Aristotle, in the style of the fourteenth century[1]. He gives also representations of several antique styles, one formed with a flat button at the blunt end, like the specimen from Frittenden[2], The end was more frequently formed like a little shovel, flat and broad, for the purpose of smoothing the wax. In the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold, a MS. of the tenth century in the possession of the duke of Devonshire, Zacharias is represented writing with a stylus of this form, the tablets being rested on his knee. See the Archseologia, vol. xxiv. pi. 27. The stylus is commonly found amongst antiquities of the Roman age, but the medieval pointel has rarely been preserved. It appears in the well-known portraits of Chaucer, appended by a small lace to the lower of the three buttons which close the vent of his collar, at the throat. It may be questioned whether any contemporary portrait of the poet exists; there are several copies of that given by Occleve and engraved for Speght's edition of Chaucer's works. One of these has been beautifully reproduced by Mr. Henry Shaw, and may be seen in his "Dresses and Decorations." A comparison of these ancient portraits, preserved in the British Museum, will be fovuid interesting: the pointel is seen in all of them. See Roy. MS. 17, D. vi. f. 90, vo. Harl. MS. 4866, f. 88; Lansd. MS. 851 ; Add. MS. 5141. Palsgrave, in the " Eclaircissement de la langue Francoyse," 1530, appears to have considered "caracte" as designating the style for writing. He gives " Poyntell, or caracte, esplingue de fer." Horman, in his curious " Vulgaria," 1519, under the chapter of writing, informs us of what mate- rials these implements were made. " Poyntillis of yron and of syluer, bras, boone, or stoone, hauynge a pynne at the ende, be put in theyr case (graphiario)." An elegant example of the "poyntillis of yron and of syluer," of the sixteenth century, is preserved in the curious collection of Mr. A. C. Kirkmann ; the point is of steel, now much blunted, the handle of silver with pretty ornaments in the Italian taste, and little figures apparently of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. The flat extremity formed a seal. We learn from the Golden Legend that the stylus was sometimes termed in medieval times a grefife ; it is said in the Life of St. Felix, who was killed by his scholars therewith, that " a grefe {al. grefFe) is properly called a pointell to wryte in tables of waxe." This term occurs as early as the Glossary of Ælfrie, in which we find "Graphmni, vel scriptorum, græf." The stylus was like-
- ↑ 'Montfaucon, Antiqu. Expl., torn. iii. pl. 194. See also the memoir by the Abb{{subst:e'}} Lebeuf, Mem. de I'Acad. vol. xx.
- ↑ The Styles shown in a painting found at Herculaneum, given in Dr. Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, from Mus. Borb. tom vi. pl. 35, appears to be formed with a flat blunt end, for similatt use to the above.
