Jews, who travel annually into the interior of China, say, that in some synagogues the law is still found, written on a roll of leather; not on vellum, but on a soft flexible leather, made of goat skins, and dyed red; which corresponds with the description of the roll above mentioned'.

Among the literary treasures that enriched the library of M. la Serna Santander, was a beautiful Hebrew Pentateuch, written on fifty-seven skins of oriental leather, sewed together with threads or strips of the same material: it formed a roll of one hundred and thirteen French feet in length. The characters are large, of a square form, and unaccompanied by vowel points. An engraving of the two first lines of this MS. is given in the first volume of M. Santander's Catalogue.

SECTION II.-Paper.

§ 1. PAPYRUS.-The most antient of all the papers was made from the inner films of the papyrus or biblos, a species of rush growing on the banks of the Nile; whence it has been called Egyptian Paper. The time of its discovery is

Appendix to Buchanan's "Star in the East."

2 It was formed into rolls, at the extremity of which was a ticket containing the title of the book: each roll was written on one side only, and, for the reader's accommodation, was divided into several compartments or pages, as exhibited in the manuscripts obtained from the ruins of Herculaneum.

not known: according to Isidore, Memphis was the first city where it was made: according to Varro (as cited by Pliny) it must be dated from the founding of Alexandria in Egypt; Pliny himself thinks it of much greater antiquity, and relates from Cassius Hemina (an antient annalist) that the books of Numa, who lived 300 years before Alexander, were discovered 535 years after his decease, in a perfect state of preservation'. Sometimes leaves of parchment were intermixed with those of papyrus, when the latter were too weak. M. Peignot mentions that in the library of St. Germain-des-Prez there formerly was a MS. of St. Augustine's works, written in this manner, and which was nearly 1100 years old2.

There are only a few fragments preserved of MSS. on Egyptian papyrus: one of the largest is that mentioned by Montfaucon, and formerly

1

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xiii. c. 13. (c. 27. ed. Bipont.) Mr. Bruce has several very curious observations on the natural history of the papyrus, which will not admit of being detailed. See his Travels, vol. vii. p. 117, et seq. 8vo edit.

2

Peignot, Dict. de Bibliologie, tom. ii. p. 24. The Library of St. Germain-des-Prez was unfortunately burnt in 1794: but the MS. of St. Augustine, and several others of high antiquity, were rescued from the flames, and are now deposited in the Imperial Library. Fournier, Dict. de Bibliographie, p. v. See an interesting account of a MS. on Egyptian papyrus, at present in the British Museum, in Mr. Beloe's Anecdotes of Literature, vol. i. 54-57.

E

deposited in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and which is now in the Imperial Library at Paris. It is a Latin translation, by Rufinus, of some books of Josephus's Jewish Antiquities: the characters are Lombardo-Roman, of the fifth century, and almost effaced.-Mabillon, and the authors of the Nouveau Traité de Diploma. tique, mention a few other fragments of manu scripts on papyrus.

We learn from Pliny, that the Egyptians made their paper in the following manner. They began with lopping off the two extremities of the papyrus, viz. the head and the root, as of no use to the manufacturer; the remaining stem they slit lengthwise into two equal parts; and from each of these they stripped the thin scaly pellicles, of which it consisted, with the point of a needle or knife. The innermost of these pellicles were considered as the best, and those nearest the rind as the worst: they were accord, ingly kept apart, and manufactured into different sorts of paper. As the pellicles were taken off, they were extended on a table; two or more of them were laid transversely over each other, so that the fibres formed right angles. In this state they were cemented together by the muddy water of the Nile, and subjected to the operation of a press, in order to produce adhesion. When the water and pressure proved ineffectual, a paste

made of the finest wheaten flour, mixed with a small proportion of vinegar, was used; the sheets were again pressed, and afterwards dried in the sun'. After this process, they were flattened and smoothed, by beating them with a mallet, when they became paper: which was sometimes polished by rubbing with a smooth hemisphere of stone, glass, &c.

Although paper was an important branch of commerce to the Egyptians, yet its manufacture was not materially improved, until the Romans became masters of Egypt: to their invention and industry the Egyptians were indebted for the polishing with ivory, and the operations of the hammer and press.

Pliny has enumerated several kinds of this paper*;

2

1. Charta Hieratica.-Sacred Paper: it was ap propriated solely to religious books, Afterwards,

* Mr. Bruce denies this account of Pliny to be correct, and states that no such quality is to be found in the water of the Nile: on the contrary, he found it of all others the most improper, until it had settled, and was absolutely divested of all the earth which it had gathered in its turbid state. Mr. Bruce made several pieces of paper from the papyrus both in Abys, sinia and in Egypt; and is of opinion that the saccharine matter, with which the whole juice of the plant is impregnated, causes the adhesion of the strips together, and that the use of the water of the Nile is simply to dissolve this sugar, and put it perfectly and equally in fusion. Travels, vol. vii. 125, Nat. Hist, lib. xiii. c. 12. (c. 23. ed. Bipont.)

from adulation of Augustus, the best sort was called Charta Augusta, and the second kind was termed Charta Liviana, in honour of his wife Livia.-Our Imperial and Royal papers probably correspond with these two sorts.

2. Charta Amphitheatrica, from the place where it was manufactured: this was a coarse kind of paper; but being greatly improved in its texture by the processes introduced by Fannius, it was called, after his name,

3. Charta Fanniana.-The paper, however, which was not so curiously manufactured, retained its former name of Charta Amphitheatrica.

4. Charta Saitica was made from the coarser pieces of the papyrus, and derives its name from the town of Sais, where it was manufactured in great abundance.

5. Charta Taniotica, thus called from the place where it was made: it was a still coarser kind than any of the preceding sorts, and sold only by weight.

6. Charta Emporetica, (or shop-paper) as its name imports, was unfit for writing, and used only for tying up parcels.

These different sorts of paper were of various sizes.-The best, which was prepared from the inmost parts or heart of the papyrus, was thirteen inches broad;-the C. Hieratica, eleven ;the C. Fanniana, eleven;-the C. Amphitheatrica,