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
ATHENaeUM--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
ROLLED RECORDS SUPERSEDED TABLET FORMS--SUGGESTIONS
BY NOEL HUMPHREYS--VIEWS ENTERTAINED
BY EARLIER WRITERS.
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:
"All the usages of civilized life depend in a
remarkable degree upon the employment of paper.
At all events, the remembrance of past events."
A statement which has caused Mr. Knight to make
the following comment:
"This observation, undoubtedly true 1,800 years
ago, is much more remarkably so now; indeed, in
considering that paper as we now understand it
was entirely unknown to Europe in the time of
Pliny, the expression of the great dependence
upon what seems to us so fragile and inefficient a
substitute for real paper appears strange."
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.
Pliny quoting Varro, who preceded him some two
centuries, asserts that before the invention of papyrus,
the large leaves of certain plants were prepared so
that they could be written upon. Hence originates
our term "leaves" of a book which in the Latin form
folium has also given us the modern term folio.
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. Before this epoch the Greeks had been in
the habit of employing such materials as linen, wax,
bark and leaves for ordinary writing purposes, while
their public records were inscribed on stone, brass,
lead or other metals.
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
writing material Pliny undertakes to describe at
great length, and while he asserts many things from
probable knowledge and the information at hand in
his time, yet he is not always correct. He says that
the reed stalks were cut into lengths and separated
"by splitting the successive folds of the stalk with a
fine metal point."
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:
"The paper reeds by the brooks, and everything
sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away
and be no more."
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 Athenaeum:
"In the winter of 1847 Mr. Harris was sitting
in his boat, under the shade of the well-known
sycamore, on the western bank of the Nile, at
Thebes, ready to start for Nubia, when an Arab
brought him a fragment of a papyrus roll, which
he ventured to open sufficiently to ascertain that it
was written in the Greek language, and which he
bought before proceeding further on his journey.
Upon his return to Alexandria, where circumstances
were more favorable to the difficult operation of
unrolling a fragile papyrus, he discovered that be
possessed a fragment of the oration of Hyperides
against Demosthenes, in the matter of Harpalus,
and also a very small fragment of another oration,
the whole written in extremely legible characters,
and of a form or fashion which those learned in
Greek MSS. consider to be of the time of the
Ptolemies. With these interesting fragments of orations
of an orator so celebrated is Hyperides, of whose
works nothing, is extant but a few quotations in
other Greek writers, he embarked for England.
Upon his arrival there he submitted the precious
relics to the inspection of the Council and members
of the Royal Society of Literature, who were unanimous
in their judgment as to the importance and
genuineness of the MSS.; and Mr. Harris immediately
set to work, and with his own hand made a
lithographic facsimile of each piece. Of this performance
a few copies were printed and distributed
among the savants of Europe,--and Mr. Harris returned
to Alexandria, whence he has made more
than one journey to Thebes in the hope of discovering
some other portion of the volume, of which
he already had a part. In the same year (1847)
another English gentleman, Mr. Joseph Arden, of
London, bought at Thebes a papyrus, which he
likewise brought to England. Induced by the success
of Mr. Harris, Mr. Arden submitted his roll
to the skilful and experienced hands of Mr.
Hogarth; and upon the completion of the operation
of unrolling, the MSS. was discovered to be the
terminating portion of the very same volume of
which Mr. Harris had bought a fragment of the
former part in the very same year, and probably of
the very same Arabs. No doubt now existed that
the volume, when entire, consisted of a collection
of, or a selection from, the orations of the celebrated
Athenian orator, Hyperides.
"The portion of the volume which has fallen into
the possession of Mr. Arden contains 'fifteen continuous
columns of the "Oration for Lycophron,"
to which work three of Mr. Harris's fragments appertained;
and likewise the "Oration for Euxenippus,"
which is quite complete and in beautiful
preservation. Whether, as Mr. Babington observes
in his preface to the work, any more scraps of
the "Oration for Lycophron" or of the "Oration
against Demosthenes" remain to be discovered,
either in Thebes or elsewhere, may be doubtful,
but is certainly worth the inquiry of learned travellers.'
The condition, however, of the fragments
obtained by Mr. Harris but too significantly indicate
the hopelessness of success. The scroll had
evidently been more frequently rolled and unrolled
in that particular part, namely, the speech of Hyperides
in a matter of such peculiar interest as
that involving the honor of the most celebrated
orator of antiquity; it had been more read and
had been more thumbed by ancient fingers than any
other speech in the whole volume; and hence the
terrible gap between Mr. Harris's and Mr. Arden's
portions Those who are acquainted with the
brittle, friable nature of a roll of papyrus in the dry
climate of Thebes, after being buried two thousand
years or more and then coming first into the hands
of a ruthless Arab, who, perhaps, had rudely
snatched it out of the sarcophagus of the mummied
scribe, will well understand how dilapidations occur.
It frequently happens that a single roll, or possibly
an entire box, of such fragile treasures is
found in the tomb of some ancient philologist or
man of learning, and that the possession is immediately
disputed by the company of Arabs who may
have embarked on the venture. To settle the dispute,
when there is not a scroll for each member
of the company, an equitable division is made by
dividing the papyrus and distributing the portions.
Thus, in this volume of Hyperides, it seems that
it has fallen into two pieces at the place where it
had most usually been opened, and where, alas! it
would have been most desirable to have kept it
whole; and that the smaller fragments have been
lost amid the dust and rubbish of the excavation,
while the two extremities have been made distinct
properties, which have been sold, as we have seen,
to separate collectors. So, at all events, such
matters are managed at Thebes.
"Mr. Harris mentions fragments of the 'Iliad,'
which he had purchased of some of the Arab disturbers
of the dead in the sacred cemeteries of
Middle Egypt, most probably Saccara."
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:
"The reference to the 'pen of a ready writer,'
mentioned in the Psalms of David (B. C. 1086-
1016) could scarcely be the sharp point, or stilus,
by means of which characters were engraved upon
wood or metal, but rather the calamus or juncas,
used for writing with a dark fluid upon bark or
linen. The word volume indeed occurs in Psalms
xxxix., and these volumina or volumes must have
been either rolls of leaves, or bark, or Egyptian
papyrus."
Some writers like Casley, Purcelli, Haygen, Calmet,
and others, who also more or less discuss this subject,
do not view it entirely the same.