CAPSA
CAPSA (dim. CAPSULA, CAPSELLA) or
SCRINIUM, the box for holding books and papers among the Romans (
Cic. Div. in Caecil. 16,
§ 51; Cat. 68.36; Hor.
Sat. 1.4, 22;
1.10, 63). These boxes were usually made of beech-wood
[p. 1.359](Plin.
H. V. 16.229), and were of a cylindrical
form. Many representations of them exist: the following cut represents the
Muse Clio with an open capsa by her side.
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The Muse Clio with a Capsa. ( Pitture d'Ercolano,
vol. ii. pl. 2.)
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The
scrinium was a larger
capsa, holding a considerable number of rolls, and hence
jokingly assigned to voluminous authors (Hor.
Sat. 1.1, 120;
Mart. 1.2,
4). Boxes used for preserving other things besides
books, for instance fruit, were also called
capsae (Plin.
H. V. 15.65;
Mart. 11.8;
capsella in this sense,
Dig. 33,
7,
12).
Scrinium, on the
other hand, is almost exclusively applied to cases for writings; yet we find
scrinium unguentorum in Pliny (
Plin. Nat. 7.108).
The circular toilet-or jewel-cases of the Romans, if in wood, were called
capsae; if in metal,
cistae. Some fine examples of the latter, both in silver and
bronze, have been preserved, and are described under CISTA: whether
capsa and
cista could be used interchangeably, as some think,
seems doubtful, though we find
cista for a
book-box in Juvenal (3.206). In Petronius (100.67) a lady wears a golden
capsella suspended from her neck. The
phrase in Seneca,
Noris complures juvenes ... totos de
capsula (
Ep. 115.2), means “redolent of
the pouncet-box.”
The slaves who had the charge of these book-chests were called
capsarii, and also
custodes
scriniorum; and the slaves who carried in a capsa behind their
young masters the books, &c., of the sons of respectable Romans,
when they went to school, were also called
capsarii (
Juv. 10.117). We
accordingly find them mentioned together with the
paedagogi (
Suet. Nero 36).
When the capsa contained books of importance, it was sealed or kept under
lock and key (
Mart. 1.66); whence Horace (
Hor. Ep. 1.20,
3）
says to his work,
Odisti claves, et grata sigilla
pudico. The fastening of a lock is shown in the engraving; other
representations of the capsa exhibit locks and keys, and the straps by which
it was carried. (Becker-Goll,
Gallus, ii. p.
443; Böttiger,
Sabina, 1.102 if.)
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