Part 4
It is evident then that the materials themselves and the changes through which they passed in the process of their improvement, the ink and its constituents, the "hand" of the writer and, as well, the peculiarities of the author's style of thought and expression as evidenced by his other and well-known composition (there is a "gait" of mind as well as of walk)--all become, so to speak, the "water marks" which determine or help to determine, approximately, the time at which a book or writing was made or produced. To illustrate: If the antiquarian should "unearth" a manuscript having evidences of great antiquity and should ascertain that it was written upon "cotton paper" that fact would assure him, without any additional evidence whatever, that the document could not be much, if any, earlier than the ninth century, for it was then that cotton paper began to displace the Egyptian papyrus. Or, if the writing was upon "linen paper" then he would be assured by the same kind of evidence that, probably, it was not made before the fourteenth century when paper made from linen rags first came into more common use.
VIII
PARCHMENT AND VELLUM
The skins of animals--sheep, lambs, and calves, and, sometimes, of antelopes, goats, asses, and swine--have served, and from the earliest use of written language, as the favored and the best material upon which to write. By different modes of treatment the skins of animals were converted into "leather," "parchment," and "vellum," respectively, as the finished product. _Leather_, tanned soft, and usually dyed red or yellow, was the material earliest used by the Hebrews. Upon this they wrote their statutes and religious history, and especially the Scroll of the Law. The Yemanite Rolls (Pentateuch and other writings) are all of red skin; and the Pentateuch rolls for the Jews of a certain section of China are of white leather.[24] According to Ctesias and Herodotus, the royal archives of ancient Persia were written on leather. Extant leather rolls are ascribed to the date of about 2,000 B. C. And there are treasured skin-rolls, in the British Museum and elsewhere, which are believed to have been prepared and inscribed as early as 1,500 B. C.
_Parchment_, also made from skins, was prepared by a different process than the tanning of leather. The word "parchment" comes from the name of the city of ancient Mysia--Pergamos or Pergamum--where its manufacture was originated and was carried on for centuries. Parchment, though known for centuries before the Christian Era, was used by the Greek and Roman writers to only a limited extent for a period of some centuries, owing to their continued preference for the papyrus production. The more general use of parchment was finally accelerated by necessity, and on this wise: Ptolemy Philadelphus (prompted perhaps by envy for the growing literary achievements of the kings of Pergamos and by jealousy for the supremacy of Alexandria) laid an embargo upon the exportation of the papyrus, then exclusively produced in Egypt. This restriction necessitated and accelerated the manufacture of parchment and thus stimulated its use, though papyrus continued to be, until after the beginning of the Christian Era, the more common and the cheaper though less durable material for receiving and perpetuating literature.
Parchment is not only one of the earliest--and the very best--but next to the baked tablets, the most durable material for all written productions. The employment of parchment to record and preserve literature spread from Pergamos throughout Europe and, because of its superior quality and its greater durability, came into the preëminence which it held until the invention of paper. Most of the existing manuscripts of a greater age than the sixth century are written on parchment. Indeed, its use for important and valuable documents, as embossed records and resolutions of respect, and diplomas and the like, has survived unto the present time.
_Vellum_ is the designation for a finer quality of writing material made from calf skins or skins of antelopes. Some of the oldest, best, and clearest of the existing copies of the Bible--notably, the Vatican and the Sinaitic manuscripts--are written on vellum.
The skins of animals, however prepared to receive writing, were cut into strips and, at the first, were fastened together in a continuous roll--sometimes to the extent of a hundred feet or more in length. The last strip of the manuscript was attached to a reed or stick, called the _umbilicus_, around which, somewhat as a mounted map or a window-shade, the whole length was rolled. It is to be remembered that the first books, whether of parchment or papyrus, were not made up of leaves and pages but of rolls--were, literally, "volumes." These rolls were written usually on but one side of the material, in narrow, cross-wise columns. A volume was unrolled and re-rolled, as read; was "closed" by rolling it up around the umbilicus; and was "fastened" by tieing it with a string--was often "sealed" with wax. [In the book of Revelation (5:7-9) there is portrayed the breaking of the "seals" in order to read the contents of the book.] The Hebrew scriptures, used in the synagogue worship, were "books" of this form, as likewise was the "book" referred to in the fortieth psalm, "In the volume of the 'book' it is written of me."
It is not determinable, either at what time or for what reasons, the change was made in the form of the manuscript from the continuous roll to the book of separate leaves. As we have noted, it is the fact that "necessity is the mother of invention," the world over and throughout history. It is also the fact that the improvements of inventions have ever been the order of development, inasmuch as few inventions, if any, in any age or realm, have ever come into existence full-grown--are other than improvements, and sometimes after long and patient and untiring persistence, upon earlier and it may be crude and imperfect originals. Thus the improvements in the preparation of skins and papyrus, making it possible to use both sides of the materials, doubtless facilitated the transition to the book of leaves and pages. This change was gradual and was furthered or even occasioned it may be by utilitarian demands, or was prompted by economy in the use of book-making materials which were constantly enhancing in value. Professor Dobschütz has this to say concerning the change from the papyrus roll to the parchment book: "The use of this latter form seems to originate in the law schools; the codex, or parchment book, is at first the designation of a Roman law-book. But at an early date the Christian Church adopted this form as the more convenient one and gave it its circulation."[25] The fact that parchment and vellum increased in cost and became less and less available as writing material led to the custom, during periods of the Middle Ages, of transcribing one work over another, and after the earlier had been obliterated. This "composite" writing was a "palimpsest," called, technically, a _codex rescriptus_, and many times obscured or destroyed an ancient and valuable production. Some of these "palimpsests," though fragments of ancient literature, both sacred and classic, are valuable and have been "recovered" or restored by the use of chemical reagents coupled with the all but infinite patience of the decipherers. A commentary of the Psalms by Augustine, written over Cicero's "De Republica," and a treatise of little value by a Syrian monk, Ephraem, superimposing a valuable fifth century manuscript of the New Testament, are examples of palimpsests in classic and Biblical literature. Some of the writings of Livy and certain books of Pliny the Younger have been recovered from superimposed writings of little or no historical value. Two facts concerning the change in the form of manuscript books are demonstrable: (1) That the first books were "rolls" or "volumes"; and (2) that, early in the Christian Era, books of "leaves" had come into relatively common use.
It is not an insignificant fact that the earliest manuscripts in the form of books with leaves show the largest number of columns to a page--approximating thus more nearly the continuous columns of the earlier "roll" book. In other words, the earliest and best known of the Greek manuscripts of the Bible--the manuscripts which are most relied upon by the scholars for all critical, scriptural study--the codices known, respectively, as the "א," or the Sinaitic, treasured at Petrograd; the "B," or the Vatican, kept at Rome; the "A," or the Alexandrian, deposited in the Manuscript Room of the British Museum; and the "C," or the Ephraem, the famous "palimpsest" preserved in the National Library at Paris (all of them written in the fourth and fifth centuries) are "books" of leaves--the one most similar to the ancient "roll" book in form and arrangement of the pages being, presumably, the oldest.
It has relation to our discussion and is of illustrative interest and value while considering ancient literature to note, in this connection, some characteristics of these preëminent manuscripts of the Bible to which we have just alluded. The Sinaitic Manuscript--one of the most valuable copies of the scriptures in the Greek tongue--was unearthed by Professor Tischendorf in the convent of St. Catharine, Mt. Sinai, in 1859, and dates, in the judgment of the critics, from the middle of the fourth century A. D. This Manuscript is transcribed on 346½ leaves of vellum, each leaf being 13½ inches in width and 14-7/8 inches in height and contains four columns of 48 lines each to a page, or eight columns to the open book. The Vatican Manuscript, written at about the same time, has three columns to a page, or six columns to the open book. The Alexandrian Manuscript, written in the fifth century, has two columns to a page. The Ephraem Manuscript, also written in the fifth century, has but a single column to a page. The Sinaitic Manuscript, because of its distinction in having the largest number of columns to a page, has been given, by some of the Biblical scholars, the first rank among the oldest extant copies of the Christian scriptures. The basis for this estimate is, largely, its nearer approach to the ancient rolls with their cross-wise columns.
IX
PAPYRUS
The commonest material upon which to write the records of history and all literature for some centuries, both before and after the time of Christ, was that manufactured from the papyrus plant, or reed, which grew in great abundance in the stagnant pools occasioned by the annual overflow of the Nile;--it grew also in the marshes of the Euphrates, and elsewhere, though for centuries the only source of the papyrus for literature was in Egypt.
Papyrus as a material upon which to write was both cheaper and more plentiful than parchment, and for these reasons it was more commonly utilized than any other prior to the invention of paper. The papyrus, while more plentiful and less expensive than parchment, was not inexpensive as a finished commodity; indeed, it was so expensive that the poor were often denied this material for writing. It is recorded that, in the list of expenses relating to the rebuilding of the Erechtheum at Athens (B. C. 407), two sheets of papyri cost at the rate of a drachma and two obols each, or a little over a shilling of our money.[26] The author of an old work gives a quaint description of the plant and of its preparation for use: "It runs up in a triangular stalk to the height of about fifteen feet and is usually about a foot and a half in circumference, sometimes more. When the outer skin is taken off there are several films, or inner skins, one within another and naturally partakable from each other. These, when separated from the stalk and flaked, made the paper which the ancients used, and which, from the name of the tree, they called Papyrus."[27]
Concerning the process of its preparation, as we learn from various sources: The inner skins or fibrous rinds of the plant were peeled off, somewhat as the outer bark of a birch tree may be detached, and then these strips of the papyrus were placed one upon another so that the "grain," or fiber, of each strip would extend crosswise to the other--sometimes three layers, even, were superimposed one upon another--after the manner of the modern two or three-ply wood veneering. The purpose of this process was to give greater strength and durability to the writing material made therefrom. The glutinous juice in these strips, (or, perhaps they were moistened by the waters of the Nile) on being subjected to pressure were glued together in one intact sheet. These larger sheets were afterwards smoothed and polished, bleached in the sun, and then cut up into strips to the dimensions of eight, twelve, or even fifteen inches in width as desired, for the rolls, or, as at a later time, into short, rectangular sections for the leaves of books.
The writing on these rolls, as on those made of parchment, was in columns, crosswise at convenient intervals, with a margin at the top and the bottom of the columns. The length of the column lines of writing was governed by the writer's taste or inclination, or the character of the composition--if poetical, by the metre. The size of the rolls, however, was determined by the amount of writing to be recorded--one of the longer books of the New Testament; _e. g._, would constitute an ordinary roll, while it would require thirty or forty or even more rolls on which to transcribe the entire Bible. According to BIRT, the average length of the papyrus roll slightly exceeded forty feet, but instances are cited of rolls reaching the length of one hundred and fifty feet. This writer is authority for the statement that a Homeric papyrus roll one hundred and twenty feet in length was burned in Byzantium in the fifth century. Mr. Putnam observes in connection with the size of the papyrus rolls: "It is possible the writer of the Apocalypse may have had one of these enormous scrolls in his vision when he beheld the record of the sins of Babylon reaching to the heavens."[28] The larger papyrus books were thus, literally, "weighty tomes," and, because they were too heavy and cumbrous to hold in the hand, were read from a table or desk. The cumbrous character of these large volumes was the basis for the dictum of the Alexandrian grammarian, "A big book is a big nuisance."
At a later period, not determinable, the papyrus writing material was no longer made up into roll form but was cut into rectangular sheets of various dimensions, according to the taste of the writer or the special need, and was then bound together somewhat as a modern book. Sometimes, when greater durability was sought, the writer or copyist would insert a leaf of parchment at every five or six leaves of the papyrus. This added greatly to the durability of the book. There are examples of books thus "reinforced" which have resisted the destructive influences of time and use for twelve centuries together. The fragile and extremely perishable character of the papyrus makes it most remarkable that any writing thereon should have survived for centuries; indeed, according to Pliny, a volume two centuries old was considered so exceptional as to be almost incredible. It was the perishable character of this material that made the frequent renewal of manuscripts handled a constant necessity, and hence the occupation of the copyists and the department of reproduction in the libraries were logical. The fragile character of the papyrus led, also, to the frequent use of a wooden case, called a _capsa_, to protect and preserve the roll. It was under very exceptional conditions only, as in mummy-cases of Egyptian tombs where they escaped the touch of man and, almost, the touch of time as well, and, as hermetically sealed under lava beds at Pompeii and Herculaneum, that the fragile papyrus was sometimes preserved for centuries.
The earliest known papyrus manuscripts date from the time of the twelfth dynasty of Egypt, or from a period of more than two thousand years before the Christian Era began. These oldest existing papyrus documents yet discovered are written in Egyptian--in three characters--in _hieroglyphics_, the most ancient or the picture-writing of the earliest times (translatable by the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone), in the _hieratic_, or the writing of the priests of Egypt from the period of the fourth or fifth dynasty (3124-2744 B. C., Lepsius) on to the third or fourth century of the Christian Era, and in the _demotic_, or the later and popular form of the priestly writing. In general, however, the papyrus period of the Egyptian literature extended from the fourth century B. C. to the fourth century A. D.
The extensive use of the papyrus as writing material is evidenced in the fact that an important commerce therein extended over a large part of the civilized world as early as the third century B. C., and continued to be a source of wealth to the Egyptians for centuries after the Christian Era had begun. In fact the use of papyrus continued, although interrupted greatly by the Saracen conquest and the embargo laid upon its importation into Pergamum by the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, until it was superseded by the manufactured paper as it progressively came into use. (Isaac Taylor.)
X
PAPER AND ITS MANUFACTURE
It is the conclusion now accepted generally that the Chinese made and used paper for writing purposes from a remote period of the past--from before the beginning of the Christian Era. "The Chinese are credited with the discovery of the art of paper-making by the use of fibers reduced in water to a pulp. Their raw materials were the inner bark of the mulberry tree, bamboo, rice straw, rags, etc."[29]
Paper was distinguished from the papyrus in that the substances from which it was made were not used in their natural state, as the papyrus was, but were manufactured from the raw material which was first reduced to a pulp, then disposed in sheets, and subsequently finished for use. In lapse of time many different kinds of substances were employed as raw material or the basis of the finished product. At the Paris Exhibition in 1889, a paper-maker showed more than sixty webs, or rolls, of paper, each made from a different vegetable fibre: and sample-books have been published which were composed of several hundred leaves, all of different fibre.[30]
It is somewhat the "irony of fate" that no account of the origin of paper has been reliably recorded. Much of the reputed history of the art, or the invention, is only conjectural. The fact is that, however remote the time and place of its beginning, paper first became available to the world of letters in the eighth century. The Arabs, having acquired the art of making it from China (through Chinese prisoners, it is said) brought its manufacture into Arabia in the eighth century and, later, carried it into Europe by way of northern Africa. The comparatively large number of Arab manuscripts, preserved from the ninth century, is evidence of the extent to which paper was adopted and used for their literary, scientific, and religious records.
The Moors by their conquest of Spain in the eighth century brought their civilization and its benefits into western Europe and, at a later time--at about the twelfth century--introduced the manufacture of paper therein. The industry spread, later, from Spain into Italy and Sicily, and came eventually into the hands of the Christians, under whose less skillful manipulations it suffered deterioration in quality. At a still later date, its manufacture extended into southern and western Germany and into the Netherlands, England, and France.
_Cotton_ paper was first manufactured from the natural product; but later, as the industry was extended to regions where cotton was not grown and into which it was not imported, other substances were used instead of the raw cotton. "In Spain," it is said, "flax was the first material used, then cotton." The practice of mixing rags--first woolen, then cotton, and later linen--gradually came into use. Near the close of the eleventh century (1085) is designated as the date when rags were first used for paper in Spain; linen paper appeared in 1100. "From the time rags began to be used in Europe they rapidly displaced other materials on account of the double use of the fibre composing them (used first for clothing or domestic purposes). Rags held sway in the paper industry for many centuries, but not entirely to the exclusion of numerous other materials."[31]
_Linen_ paper, though known much earlier, came into general use in the fourteenth century. It was manufactured not only in response to the demand for improvement which characterizes all inventions but because linen was then less expensive than cotton. The earliest existing document on paper is a deed of King Roger of Sicily, 1102 A. D. There are other documentary records of Sicilian kings during the twelfth century. "The manufacture of paper from linen rags," says Thalheimer, "was a humble but essential antecedent to the art of printing, for the costliness of parchment or vellum was as effectual a barrier to the multiplication of books as the labor of transcribing them." Even before the Christian Era, the cost of books was largely the cost of the material--papyrus--upon which they were mostly written. Mr. Putnam suggests that "if printing had come into Europe in the first century, the world might to-day be buried under the accumulated mass of its literature"--no, not unless the invention of paper had been coterminous or had preceded.
All other and earlier materials for the embodiment and preservation of literature were eventually superseded by the manufacture of paper. Concerning the displacement of other materials, there is good authority for the claim that "in the second half of the fourteenth century the use of paper for all literary purposes had become well established in all western Europe; and in the course of the fifteenth century it had gradually superseded vellum. In manuscripts of this latter period it is not unusual to find a mixture of vellum and paper, a vellum sheet forming the outer and inner leaves of a quire while the rest are of paper."[32]
And thus the invention of paper and the successive improvements in its quality consequent upon the improved methods of its making, prepared the way for the printing-press--an invention the importance of which is beyond estimate and the relation of which to literature baffles comparison. But the manufacture of paper, notwithstanding the fact that it has shared in many and important improvements, continued to be made laboriously by hand up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.