The early Italian races, Latins, Samnites and others, appear to have used linen very frequently for their manuscript records and sacred books. Among the public records mentioned by Livy as having once been preserved with the Archives in the Capitoline Temple of Juno Moneta were some of these early linen manuscripts (_libri lintei_); see Liv. IV. 7, 13, 20. Livy also (X. 38) describes an ancient manuscript, containing an account of the ritual customs of the Samnites, as a _liber vetus linteus_. In historic times, however, _papyrus_ and _parchment_ appear to have superseded _linen_ in ancient Rome. _Inscribed potsherds._ _Ostraka Manuscripts._ For ephemeral purposes, such as tradesmen's accounts and other business matters, writing was often done with a pen and ink on broken fragments of pottery ([Greek: ostraka]). An enormous number of these inscribed potsherds, mostly dating from the Ptolemaic period, have been found in Egypt, and especially on the little island of Elephantine in the Nile a short distance below the first cataract. Among the Greeks too, writing on potsherds was very common; especially when the Athenian tribes met in the Agora to record their votes for the exile of some unpopular citizen, whence is derived the term _ostracism_ ([Greek: ostrakismos]). The word _liber_ as meaning a _book_ is supposed to be derived from a primitive custom of writing on the smooth inner bark of some tree, such as the birch, which supplies a fine silky substance, not at all unsuited for manuscripts. _MSS. on leaves._ The large broad leaves of some varieties of the palm tree have also been used for manuscript purposes, more especially among the inhabitants of India and Ceylon. In early times the questions asked of the Oracle of the Pythian Apollo at Delphi were said to have been written on leaves of the laurel plant. Pali manuscripts in Ceylon are even now frequently written on palm-leaves; and we have the evidence of Pliny that this custom once existed among some of the ancient classical races: see _Hist. Nat._ XIII. 69, "Ante non fuisse chartarum usum, in palmarum foliis primo scriptitatum; deinde quarundam arborum libris. Postea publica monumenta plumbeis voluminibus, mox et privata linteis confici coepta aut ceris. Pugillarium enim usum fuisse etiam ante Trojana tempora invenimus apud Homerum." In this passage Pliny gives a list of all the chief materials that had been used for manuscripts in ancient times, the _leaves_ and _bark of trees_, _plates of lead_, _linen cloth_ and _waxed tablets_, he then goes on to describe at considerable length the methods of making paper from the pith of the papyrus plant; see page 22. _Greek libraries._ _Ancient libraries_; among the Greeks and Romans of the historic period books do not appear to have been either rare or costly as they were during the greater part of the mediaeval period.