ĀTRĀMENTUM

a term applicable to any black colouring substance, for whatever purpose it may be used, like the mel an ( μέλαν ) of the Greeks. There were, however, three principal kinds of at ramentum: one called librarium , or scriptorium (in Greek, γραφικὸν μέλαν ), writing-ink; another called sutorium , which was used by the shoemakers for dyeing leather; the third tectorium , or pictorium , which was used by painters for some purposes, apparently as a sort of varnish. The inks of the ancients seem to have been more durable than our own; they were thicker and more unctuous, in substance and durability more resembling the ink now used by printers. An inkstand was discovered at Herculaneum, containing ink as thick as oil, and still usable for writing. The ancients used inks of various colours. Red ink, made of minium or vermilion, was used for writing the titles and beginning of books. So also was ink made of rubric a , “red ochre;” and because the headings of laws were written with rubric a, the word rubric came to be used for the civil law. So album , a white or whited table, on which the praetors’ edicts were written, was used in a similar way. A person devoting himself to album and rubric a , was a person devoting himself to the law. [ Album . ]