CHAPTER XXVIII.
ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (THE ORIGIN OF PAPYRUS). Forty Centuries of Ink | ||
28. CHAPTER XXVIII.
ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (THE ORIGIN OF PAPYRUS).
FROM WHENCE COMES THE NAME PAPER—FIRST CENTURY COMMENT ABOUT IT—KNIGHT'S COMMENTS MORE THAN 1,800 YEARS LATER—PAPYRUS AN EGYPTIAN REED—NAMES BESTOWED BY ANCIENT WRITERS—THE SAME NAMES AS EMPLOYED IN MODERN TIMES—LEAVES OF PLANTS PRECEDED THE INVENTION OF PAPYRUS—WHEN IT WAS THAT ROLLED RECORDS CAME INTO VOGUE—VARRO'S ESTIMATION AS TO THE ORIGINAL USE OF PAPYRUS NOT CORRECT—REAL FACTS RESPECTING THE INTRODUCTION OF PAPYRUS BEYOND THE LIMITS OF EGYPT—CHARACTER OF MATERIALS EMPLOYED BY THE GREEKS BEFORE THAT EPOCH—EMPLOYMENT OF IT FOR LITERARY PURPOSES—ADOPTION OF PARCHMENT AND VELLUM—PAPYRUS MSS. EMPLOYED IN THE FORM OF ROLLS AND THE REASON FOR SAME—ANCIENT MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS IN EGYPT—SOME OF THE NAMES USED TO DESIGNATE DIFFERENT KINDS—PLINY'S DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS AND HIS MISINFORMATION ABOUT IT—WHERE IT FLOURISHED BEST—PAPYRUS AS KNOWN TO THE HEBREWS AND ITS BIBLICAL MENTION—MANUFACTURE OF PAPYRUS IN THE ANCIENT CITY OF MEMPHIS—CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PAPER EMPLOYED BY THE MEXICANS—MR. HARRIS'S DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT FRAGMENTS OF PAPYRUS—THE STORY ABOUT IT AS TOLD BY THE LONDON ATHENÆUM—DATES OF THE OLDEST KNOWN SPECIMENS OF GREEK PAPYRI—DATE OF THE FIRST DISCOVERY OF GREEK PAPYRI—USE OF OTHER PLIABLE MATERIALS WITH PAPYRUS—HOW THEY WERE PREPARED FOR WRITING PURPOSES—DOUBTS AS TO TIME THAT
THE name paper is derived from papyrus, a reed grown in Egypt, whose stalk furnished for so many centuries the principal material for writing upon to the people of that country and those bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. In the first century of the Christian era the younger Pliny remarks:
A statement which has caused Mr. Knight to make the following comment:
Mr. Knight also says that the Greek name papuros, mentioned by Theophrastus, a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander, was probably the Egyptian name of the reed with a Greek termination. It was also called biblos by Homer and Herodotus, whence our term bible. The term volumen, a scroll, indicates the early form of a book of bark, papyrus, skin, or parchment, as the term liber (Latin, a book, or the inner bark of a tree) does the use of the bark itself. Hence also our terms library and librarian. "Book" is also derived from the Danish word bog, the bark of the beech.
When, however, the reed pen and the pencil brush and their kindred substances denominated colored liquids or inks, came into vogue, some material on which characters could be inscribed and preserved in the shape of continuous rolls for record and other uses became necessary. The papyrus plant seems to have met every requirement. It is a noteworthy fact that all information which can be derived from any source, specifically calls attention to papyrus and sometimes the inner barks of trees as being coexistent with pen and ink.
Varro has been credited with many statements which in the light of investigation and discovery are proved to be incorrect. One of these is in effect that the use of papyrus was an incident pertaining to the expeditions of Alexander the Great. This assertion is not only contradicted by Pliny, the historian, who calls attention to "books of papyrus found in the tomb of Numa " (Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, B. C. 716-672,) but even at this late day many monuments of ancient papyri are still extant and belonging to periods more than a thousand years before Alexander's time.
The real facts in respect to this matter are, that the introduction of the use of papyrus to nations beyond the limits of Egypt was an event that did not take place until after the reign of the first Macedonian sovereign of Egypt, Ptolemy Lagus (B. C. 323) when, in return for Greek literature, Egypt gave back her
Papyrus as then introduced into those western countries was the only substance for a long period employed for literary purposes.
Parchment and vellum, which were adopted there as writing materials about two centuries later, were too costly to be used so long as papyrus was within reach.
When the use of this ancient paper had become established in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, all the MSS. assumed the form of rolls, being rolled on cylinders of wood, ivory, bronze, glass and other substances. Sometimes, the ends were decorated by various ornaments. As a rule only one side of the material was written upon. This was due largely to the fact of its brittle character which would cause it to break if rolled or bent the wrong way.
The ancient manufacture of papyrus for export was carried on in Egypt on an extensive scale and in the most systematic manner. A gradual improvement in quality was the result, some of the kinds being given well-known Roman names which are mentioned by contemporary writers. The kind employed by the Romans for ordinary use was designated Charta. More expensive qualities were known as "Augusta," "Livinia," "Hieratica," etc., the latter being reserved for religious books. Some kinds were sold by weight and employed by the tradesmen for wrapping purposes, while the bark of the plant was manufactured into cord and rope.
The methods of the manufacture of papyrus as a
Mr. Knight, who investigated this matter with care, is authority for the statement, that the papyrus stalk as seen under the microscope shows that it does not possess successive folds, but is a triangular stalk with a single envelope with a pith on the inside, which could only be divided into slices with a knife, either in stripes of a width permitted by the sides of the prism, or else shaved round and round, like the operation of cork making, and producing a long spiral shaving.
In the description which Pliny gives of the various homes of this plant in Egypt, he calls particular attention to its abundance in marshy places where the Nile overflows and stagnates: "It grows like a great bulrush from fibrous, reedy roots, and runs up in several triangular stalks to a considerable height." They possessed large tufted heads, but only the stem was fit for making into paper. After the pellicles or thin coats were removed from the stalk, they were laid upon tables two or more over each other and glued together with the muddy and glutinous water of the Nile or with fine paste made of wheat flour; after being pressed and dried they were made smooth with a ruler and then rubbed over with a glass hemisphere. The size of the paper seldom exceeded two feet.
Papyrus was also known to the Hebrews.
The Prophet Isaiah (B. C. 752) refers to this plant when he says:
Which prediction seems to have been long ago fulfilled as the plant is now exceedingly rare.
The manufacture of Egyptian paper from papyrus it is said was quite an industry in the ancient city of Memphis more than six hundred years before the Christian era.
The Mexicans employed for writing a paper which somewhat resembled the Egyptian papyrus. It was prepared from the aloe, called by the natives Maguey which grows wild over the tablelands of Mexico. It could be easily colored and seemed to bind to ink very closely. It could be rolled up in scrolls just like the more ancient rolls of papyrus.
The following account of an interesting discovery of a fragment of one of the "Orations of Hyperides," by Mr. Harris, the well-known Oriental scholar, is derived from the London Athenæum:
The oldest known specimens of the Greek papyri and which were found in Egypt, have a range of one thousand years; that is, from the third century B. C. to the seventh century A. D.
The first discovery of Greek papyri was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Papyrus, however, in the most ancient, periods was not the only pliable material used to write on which could be rolled on cylinders. Linen or cloth, which had been first treated with substances which filled the interstices and characteristic of our oil-cloth, the inner bark of certain trees, or in fact any material which would receive ink and roll around a cylinder was in vogue. This form of manuscript was later termed by the Romans rolles, to roll round, or more commonly volvere, to roll over.
It is not certain, however, that this character of manuscript immediately superseded the tablet form of records inscribed on wood or metal. Noel Humphreys is one of several to suggest:
Some writers like Casley, Purcelli, Haygen, Calmet, and others, who also more or less discuss this subject, do not view it entirely the same.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
ANCIENT INK BACKGROUNDS (THE ORIGIN OF PAPYRUS). Forty Centuries of Ink | ||