A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890)
William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin, Ed.

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SCALPRUM

SCALPRUM was the name which might no doubt be applied to any instrument which could be said scalpere, and so it includes both cutting and chiselling tools. Under the former head we have:--

• 1. The shoemaker's knife for cutting leather = the Greek σμίλη or σμιλίον (Hor. Sat. 2.3, 106; Pollux, 7.83; Plat. Rep. i. p. 353 A, Alc. i. p. 129 C). There is a distinction between the σμίλη, which has a straight blade like an ordinary knife blade, and the τομεὺς or περιτομεύς, also used by leather-cutters, which had a crescent-shaped blade (Olympiodor. p. 210). Blümner (Technol. 1.273) identifies the scalprum with the. straight-bladed (σμίλη, and the culter crepidarius with the rounded τομεύς.
2. Scalprum librarium (καλαμογλύφος, a penknife (Tac. Ann. 5.8; Suet. Vit. 2) = σμίλη δονακογλύφος (Anth. P. 6.295), which was used to make the point of the reed-pen. [CALAMUS]
3. A grafting-knife for gardeners (Plin. Nat. 17.119).
• 4. A surgeon's knife (Cels. 8.3): both σμίλη and τομεὺς are names of ἰατρῶν ἐργαλεῖα (Poll. 4.181). [See woodcut under CHIRURGIA]

As a chisel we have the scalprum fabrile (Liv. 27.49), alike for wood and stone, in form resembling a modern chisel (see cut under CIRCINUS) and = the Greek γλύφανον: it was struck with a mallet (malleus), for which the Greek equivalent is κολαπτήρ, for Rich and Liddell and Scott are probably mistaken in understanding the κολαπτὴρ to be a chisel. (See Blümner, Technologie, 2.211, 3.93.)

[G.E.M]