Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Protypum
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.
PROT'YPUM (πρότυπον). A model after which any thing is formed, corresponding with our prototype. In a passage of Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 43.), the term is used to designate reliefs in terra cotta employed as antefixes (antefixa) for decorating buildings, and which could be multiplied to any extent, by making a mould (forma) upon them, and taking casts (ectypa) from it; but the reading of the passage is not altogether certain, and some editors adopt PROSTYPUM in its stead.