The beginning of the systematic study of Latin inscriptions in the middle of the 19th century, for which the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum stands decisively, is centrally characterized by the endeavor to replace the hitherto common but often inadequate practice of copying inscription texts by hand with mechanical reproductions of the inscription texts. The techniques and materials used were varied and sometimes experimental. They illustrate the efforts of the editors to reproduce their specific inscription genres as adequately as possible. In 1870, Emil Hübner described the methods, their areas of application, advantages and disadvantages in an article entitled „Mechanische Copieen von Inschriften“ („Mechanical Copies of Inscriptions“). With the archival documents stored in the CIL archive, founded in the 1880s, Hübner’s contribution can not only be comprehensively illustrated, but can also be understood in a much more differentiated way.