MATERIALS FOR WRITING.

425

CHAPTER LXXI.

Bark-"Liber" and "book"-Palm-leaves-now in use.-Bone-IvoryHornbook.

Or other woody materials we find that bark was early used for writing purposes. It was, at first, the bark of trees indiscriminately, which served, for instance, the herdsmen of Virgil (Eclog. v. 13) to record their sentimental effusions; afterwards, the thin peel between the outer bark and the wood was carefully separated, and it was this skin-like substance which was first called "liber" (Digest, 32, 52). In the same manner derive Germanic idioms their name for "book" from the earliest material, "beech," Anglo-Saxon boc. This bark was first used for letters, because it was so easily folded, and hence the still prevailing names of "folio," "leaves" of a book, &c., though the leaves of trees, themselves, were also frequently used. Palm-leaves, especially, were cut fresh, written upon whilst pulpy and soft, and then dried and preserved. Pliny (Nat. Hist. XIII. 2) speaks repeatedly of this strange but convenient writingmaterial, and numerous documents of this kind are still in existence. Several copies of the Bible on palm-leaves are scattered over Europe, and a fragment of the Gospel of St. John exists, written on birch-bark. From Mexico, also, hieroglyphic writings on bark have been brought to Europe, or are

still deposited in the city; they resemble strangely similar writings on leaves from the coast of Malabar. In the East Indies, leaves are even now extensively used, especially for sacred writings, which Buddhism forbids to be recorded on animal substances, like parchment, and letters are written on carefully prepared pieces of bark, several yards long and richly ornamented.

Bone has but rarely been used as a writing material, and then mostly appears in the shape of ivory or horn. The Romans used the former for the edicts of the senate, which were marked with black color; they were called "libri elephantini," not from their size, but from their material. The "hornbook" of England and Germany, still extensively used among sailors, is a more modern application of bony substances. Chaucer says of one of his characters, that—

"His fellow had a staffe tipped with horne,

A paire of tables all of iverie,

And a pointell polished fetouslie;

And wrote alwaies the names as he stood,

Of all folke that gave him any goode."

PAPYRUS.

427

CHAPTER LXXII.

PAPYRUS.

Preparation-Terms derived from its use.

THE ancients employed papyrus most generally after metals had gone out of fashion. It was the Cyperus papyrus or Nilecane, growing about twelve feet high, in a triangular stem of about a foot's thickness. This was cut into thin layers, watered, glued or sized, and then smoothed so as to form the so-called

Bißlog or Búßλos the modern "Bible." Pliny, however, βίβλοξ βίβλος informs us that the same cane was also found in Syria, on the banks of the Euphrates, and even near Syracuse in the stagnant waters of that vicinity. Most of this earliest kind of paper was made in the city of Alexandria, which grew extremely wealthy by this almost exclusive industry. In the East, it received also the name of "Charta," either from the Greek χαράττω and 8 xáprηs or from the Tyrian town Charta, which was once famous for the admirable papyrus it produced. Afterwards the raw material was prepared in Italy and, as Charta Romana, became famous all over the world, partly because of its greater cheapness, partly because it could be written upon on both sides, which was not the case with the Egyptian. Among the Romans it had various names; sometimes it passed as "Charta

66

Augusta," in honor of Cæsar Augustus, at others as "Charta Liviana," after the empress, but most generally as Charta Blanca," from its beautiful whiteness. Hence the English term “a blank," and the "carte blanche" of the French. Writings on this material were called codices (from caudex) and codicilli (modern codicil) when stitched together, and "volumina" when rolled around a rod or wooden pin—a form which was common also to parchment writings. How admirable this "papyrus or "paper" served its purpose and bore moisture and dampness in vaults, with impunity, is proved by the recovery of papyrusrolls in Thebes, which are at least fifteen hundred years old, and others in Pompeii and Herculaneum, showing that the frail inner skin of a reed could be as well preserved as the massive stones of gigantic temples. The oldest MS. extant, on papyrus, is a fragment of the Iliad, beautifully written in capitals, and dating probably from the times of the Ptolemies; it was discovered in 1825 on the island of Elephantine in the Upper Nile, by a Frenchman who travelled for Sir Joseph Banks. Its astonishing durability caused its use to be long continued even after other materials were generally preferred, and in spite of its high cost since the conquest of Egypt by infidel Arabs, when papyrus could no longer be obtained. In Byzant, however, imperial edicts were written on this costly and rare material until far into the middle ages, and the popes also preferred it long for their bulls. The last document on papyrus is believed to be an edict of Charlemagne. The American con

tinent seems to have had its own papyrus; the Spaniards found at least in Mexico certain portions of the Agave Americana-perhaps the leaves only-prepared carefully and covered with an earthy matter to give it greater firmness and elasticity.

USE OF SKINS.

429

CHAPTER LXXIII.

USE OF SKINS.

Herodotus-Iliad in a nutshell-Petrarch's vest of tanned skin-Preparation of skins-Parchment-" Palimpsestoi," or "rescripti."

It is well known how the ignorance of the earlier dark ages knew, for ages, of no substitute for the lost papyrus, and either covered over, crossed and recrossed ancient MSS. to the sad detriment of priceless works, or readily acquiesced in total abstinence from writing. It was not until the eighth century that a substitute was found in a material, used since time immemorial, the skin of animals. Already in the days of David, the Israelites had books written on skins, and the high-priest Eleazar sent a superb copy of the Pentateuch, written on the same material, to Ptolemaeus Philadelphus (Josephus, Antiq. 1. 2). Herodotus (v. 58) also informs his readers that the Ionians, of old, wrote on the skin of sheep and goats, from which merely the hair had been scraped off. How far from this rude form to the extreme delicacy of the parchment, containing the whole Iliad, which Cicero is said to have kept in a nut-shell, and how different from the famous vest of tanned skin, on which Petrarch wrote his thoughts and verses—a truly strange memorial of the sweet poet, which, covered with writing and erasures, was still shown in 1527 as a precious literary curiosity! The skin of