Back some years ago I had the opportunity to catalog a book printed entirely on birch bark. It was a rebuke by Simon Pokagon, a Potawatomie, to the white man, printed in the late 1800s in New Jersey. Needless to say we carefully made a copy of the book, wrapped the original in archival tissue, and put it safely away.

I'd never seen a book printed on bark before (or since) and to learn that the Romans in Britain used the same sort of thing as "postcards" is fascinating.