Whoever wishes to adorn any wood with divers colours, let him hear what I say. First make the wood very flat and smooth by scraping it, and lastly by rubbing it with that herb which is called shave-grass. But if the piece of wood is such that you cannot smooth down its inequalities, or you have reasons for not wishing to do so, and at the same time are not willing to cover it with leather or with cloth, grind dry white-lead upon a stone, but not so finely as if you were going to paint with it. Then melt wax over the fire in a vase, add tiles ground fine. Then mix it with the white-lead which you had ground, stirring it frequently with a small stick, and so let it cool. then heat an iron, and with it melt the wax into the little fissures, until they are level, and then scrape off the rough parts with a knife. And if you hesitate about mixing white-lead with the wax, know that the more you mix with it, the harder it will be. And when you have made it smooth, as I was saying, mix plenty of white-lead very finely ground, with linseed-oil, and lay an excessively thin coat of it wherever you intend to paint with a brush of ass's hair adapted for that purpose. When this is dry, lay on, as you did before, another and a thicker coat of it, not thicker by having a greater quantity of colour, but by having less oil in it. For you must take very great care never to lay on the colour too fat, for if you do this, and lay on a great deal of it, when it begins to dry, wrinkles will form on the surface of it. But now, in order that I may omit nothing that relates to the subject, I beg you will let me return to where I was speaking of the bare wood [if you were willing to cover it with a leather or with a cloth]. If the wood, which you wish to paint upon, is [not] smooty, cover it with leather made of horse-skin or with parchment.