As a writer Bonstetten cannot be said to occupy a very high place. His works, indeed, show a great power of observation, and an extensive insight into human character; but as a psychologist he is deficient in method, exactness, and depth; and his style, like his thought, wants point and clearness. In psychology he occupies an eclectic position, and urges the necessity of making use of internal observation in the study of mind. It is, however, in his social character, as a conversationalist, and as the friend, often the intimate companion, of many of the leaders of thought and action during his long life, that Bonstetten will be best remembered. The following are the titles of his chief works:—Recherches sur la nature et les lois de l'imagination, 1807; Etudes d'homme, ou Recherches sur les facultés de sentir et de penser, 1821; Sur l'éducation nationale, 1802; Pensées sur divers objets de bien public, 1815; L'Homme du Midi et l'Homme du Nord, 1814.
BONVICINO, Alejandro. See Moretto.
BOOK, the common name for any literary production of bulk, now applied particularly to a printed composition forming a volume. The name is also used for, the literary divisions of a work.
Wachtcr, with some other writers, derives the word from the same root as the German biegen, to bend, as the Latin volumen comes from volvere. But the more common ety mology makes the tree the parent of the book, and refers the origin of the latter (Angl. Sax., boc ; Germ., Jhtch ; Dutch, bock) to writing on the bark of the beech tree (Angl. Sax., boc; Germ., Ihu-he ; Iccl., leyke ; Dutch, beuke), or perhaps on beach boards. Analogy supports this deriva tion. The byblos of the Greeks whence their name for a book refers to the Egyptian papyrus itself, and the Latin liber to the pellicle which enclosed its stalk. The codex of the Romans meant at first the trunk of a tree; and tho leaves of a book indicate a similar origin.
The earliest writings were purely monumental, and accordingly those materials were chosen which were sup posed to last the longest. The same idea of perpetuity which in architecture found its most striking exposition in the pyramids was repeated, in the case of literary records, in the two columns mentioned by Josephus, the one of stone and the other of brick, on which the children of Seth wrote their inventions and astronomical discoveries; in the pillars in Crete on which, according to Porphyry, the ceremonies of the Corybantes were inscribed ; in the leaden tablets containing the works of Hesiod, deposited in the temple of the Muses, in Boeotia ; in the ten command ments on stone delivered to Moses ; and in the laws of Solon, inscribed on planks of wood. The notion of a literary production surviving the destruction of the materials on which it was first written the " monumentum aere perennius" of Horace s ambition was unknown before the discovery of substances for systematic transcription.
among the Greeks and Romans. When made of wood sometimes of citron, but usually of beech or fir their inner sides were coated with wax, on which the letters Avere traced Avith a pointed pen or stiletto (stylus), one end of which Avas used for erasure. It Avas with his stylus that Cresar stabbed Casca in the arm Avhen attacked by his murderers. Two such tablets, joined together, were called diptycha,[1] the earliest specimens of bookbinding. They were fastened together at the back by wires, which acted as hinges ; the pages were called cerce, from their waxen coating, and a raised margin Avas left round each to prevent obliteration by friction. Wax tablets of this kind continued in partial use in Europe during the Middle Ages ; the oldest extant specimen, now in the museum at Florence, belongs to the year 1301. The leaves of the palm tree were after- Avards used in their stead, as also the inner bark of the lime, tho ash, the maple, and the elm. But the earliest, though long obsolete, flexible material of importance Avas made from the concentric coats which wrapped the stalk of the Egyptian papyrus, from which is derived our word paper. The time of its introduction has been much disputed ; but it was certainly known long before Herodotus. The length of the Greek papyri is said to vary from eight to twelve inches ; the Latin often reach sixteen. Some rolls, hoAvever, have been found as long as thirty feet. They were written on Avith reeds dipped in gum-water coloured Avith charcoal or soot of resin, the Avriting being readily obliterated Avith a sponge ; and it is conjectured that the surface was some times prepared for that purpose with a wash or varnish. Pliny mentions also the ink of the cuttle fish as having been used for AA-riting, as Avell as a decoction of the lees of wine.[2] Red ink consisted of a preparation from cinnabar. The next material commonly employed after papyrus was parchment, made from the skins of animals, usually of sheep or lambs. Vellum is a finer substance, consisting of prepared calf-skin. Parchment is commonly ascribed to Eumenes, king of Pergamus, in Asia Minor ; but he was, in all probability, not the inventor but the improver. Writing on skins is mentioned by Herodotus as common in his day ; and Diodorus and Ctcsias speak of ancient Persian records on leather. The word itself (pergamena) first occurs, according to Mabillon, in the writings of Tatto, a monk of the 4th century. It appears to have superseded
papyrus about the 7th century ; but its quality af terwards