Stilus
Girl with wax tablet and stilus, Pompeii
A stylus ( lat. " Stylus ") is a pointed pen made of hard material, which was used as a writing implement in ancient times . They were made of iron, bronze, bone or ivory, and occasionally also of silver. They were mainly used for writing on wax tablets . The writing was scratched into the wax with the tip of the stilus (occasionally: stylus). With the spatula-shaped, flattened end of the stylus, errors could be "erased" and overwritten by smoothing the wax. This is where the phrase 'turn the stylus around' (Latin stilum vertere ) for 'erase ' comes from . Stili are known from numerous pictorial representations of antiquity; Original copies have also been preserved.
See also
literature
- Irén Bilkei: Roman writing implements from Pannonia. In: Alba Regia. Vol. 18, 1980, ISSN 1216-7983 , pp. 61-90.
- Horst Blanck : The book in antiquity. Beck, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-36686-4 .
- Otto Mazal : Greco-Roman antiquity (= history of book culture. Vol. 1). Academic Printing and Publishing Establishment, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01716-7 .
- Verena Schaltbrand Obrecht: How were iron stilettos made and decorated in Roman times? In: Renate Ebersbach, Alex R. Furger (eds.): Mille Fiori. Festschrift for Ludwig Berger on his 65th birthday (= research in Augst 25). Römermuseum, Augst 1998, ISBN 3-7151-0025-7 , pp. 201-205.
- Verena Schaltbrand Obrecht: Stilus. (= Research in Augst 45, 1-2). Augst 2012, ISBN 978-3-7151-0045-6