From a passage in Quintilian we learn that the Romans were acquainted with the method of _tracing_ letters, by means of a piece of thin wood in which the characters were pierced or cut through, on a principle similar to that on which the present art of _stencilling_ is founded. He is speaking of teaching boys to write, and the passage referred to may be thus translated: “When the boy shall have entered upon _joining-hand_, it will be useful for him to have a _copy-head_ of wood in which the letters are well cut, that through its furrows, as it were, he may trace the characters with his _style_. He will not thus be liable to make slips as on the wax [alone], for he will be confined by the boundary of the letters, and neither will he be able to deviate from his text. By thus more rapidly and frequently following a definite outline, his hand will become _set_, without his requiring any assistance from the master to guide it.”[I-13] [Footnote I-13: “Quum puer jam ductus sequi cœperit, non inutile erit, litteras tabellæ quam optime insculpi, ut per illos, velut sulcos, ducatur stylus. Nam neque errabit, quemadmodum in ceris, continebitur enim utrimque marginibus, neque extra præscriptum poterit egredi; et celerius ac sæpius sequendo certa vestigia firmabit articulos, neque egebit adjutorio manum suam, manu superimposita, regentis.” Quintiliani Instit. Orator., lib. i. cap. I.] A thin stencil-plate of copper, having the following letters _cut out_ of it, DN CONSTAN TIO AVG SEM PER VICTORI was received, together with some rare coins, from Italy by Tristan, author of “Commentaires Historiques, Paris, 1657,” who gave a copy of it at page 68 of the third volume of that work. The letters thus formed, “ex nulla materia,”[I-14] might be traced on paper by means of a pen, or with a small brush, charged with body-colour, as stencillers _slap-dash_ rooms through their pasteboard patterns, or dipped in ink in the same manner as many shopkeepers now, through similar thin copper-plates, mark the prices of their wares, or their own name and address on the paper in which such wares are wrapped. [Footnote I-14: Prosper Marchand, at page 9 of his “Histoire de l’Imprimerie,” gives the following title of a book in 8vo. which was wholly, both text and figures, executed in this manner, _percé au jour_, in vellum: “Liber Passionis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, cum figuris et characteribus _ex nulla materia_ compositis.” He states that in 1640 it was in the collection of Albert Henry, Prince de Ligne, and quotes a description of it from Anton. Sanderi Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta, parte ii. p. 1.] [Illustration]