“Before we depart out of Egypt, we must not forget the plant _papyrus_,
but describe the nature thereof, considering that all civilitie of life,
the memoriall, and immortalitie also of men after death consisteth
especially in _paper_ which is made thereof. M. Varro writeth that the
first invention of making paper was devised upon the conquest of Ægypt,
achieved by Alexander the Great, at what time as he founded the city of
Alexandria in Ægypt, where such paper was first made.”—_Holland_,
_Plinie_, b. xiii. c. 21.
We have alluded to the barks of trees being used. The thin peel which is
found between the second skin of a tree was called _liber_,—from whence
the Latin word, _liber_, a book; and we have derived the name of library
and librarian in the European language, and in the French their _livre_
for book.
_THE PEN._
The instruments employed by the ancients for making the letters on their
tablets was a small, pointed piece of iron, or some other hard
substance, called by the Romans a _style_: hence a man’s manner of
composition was figuratively called his _style_ of writing. The use of
the word still continues, though the instrument has long since passed
away.
Style derives its name from _stylus_, Latin, as also from a Greek word,
_columna_, an instrument with a point.
Reeds formed into pens were used to trace the letters with ink of some
sort after the fashion that is now common; or else they were painted
with a small brush, as was probably the general custom at first. Pens
made of quills were not in use until the fifth century. The oldest
certain account of writing with quills is a passage of Isidore, who died
in 636, and who, among the instruments of writing, mentions “reeds and
feathers.” In the same century a small poem was written on a pen, which
is to be found in the works of Althelmus. He died in 709.