By Tobias Carroll There was a time centuries ago when artists, politicians and intellectuals found a unique place where they could skirmish with one another. It wasn’t a local dueling ground, and it didn’t necessarily involve writing barbed satires in which unflattering caricatures of their rivals were made to look foolish. (Though it certainly could have.) Instead, the unlikely site of battles of wills could be found in the indexes of weighty tomes. Writing at Slate, Dennis Duncan explored this bizarre but entertaining period in history. Duncan cites the 19th century politician Thomas Babingt…