Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Diptycha

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

DIP'TYCHA (δίπτυχα). Folding tablets (Diptycha/1.1), consisting of two leaves connected by a string or by hinges, which shut up like the covers of a book, or of a modern backgammon board. (Schol. Vet. ad Juv. ix. 36.) The outside presented a plain surface of wood; the inside had a raised margin all round, within which a coat of wax was spread for writing on with a steel point (stilus), while the margin preserved the wax and letters from abrasion by coming into contact.

2. Diptycha consularia, praetoria, aedilitia. Tablets of similar form, but containing the names and portraits of consuls, praetors, aediles, and other magistrates, which they presented to their friends, and distributed amongst the people on the day of entering upon their respective offices. (Symmach. Ep. ii. 80. Id. v. 54. Cod. Theodos. 15. 9. 1.) Many diptychs of this description in wood and ivory are preserved in the cabinets of antiquities, and have been engraved by Maffei, Mus. Veronens., and Donati, Dittici Antichi, but the details are too minute and elaborate for insertion in these columns.

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  Diptycha/1.1