Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/160

144 Among the Romans ivory was sometimes substituted for wood in the waxen tablets, as appears from passages in classical authors. The large consular diptychs are examples of the custom. The rich carvings with which these were embellished have secured their preservation in several instances ; and they were often kept in the churches in the Middle Ages and inscribed with lists of bishops or abbots and benefactors. The employment of PAPYRUS (q.v.) as an ordinary writing material in ancient Egypt, and, exported from thence, in Greece and Italy, is well known. The most ancient examples of Greek writing which will have to engage our attention are those which are found in the papyrus rolls of Egypt of the 2d century B.C. Though superseded in course of time by vellum, this material continued to be used by Greek scribes down to the 9th century. The earliest Latin writing on papyrus is contained in some fragments recovered at Herculaneum. Dating from the 5th to the 10th century are the papyrus deeds of Ravenna; and papal documents on the same substance extend from the 8th to the llth century. Papyrus was also used for documents in France under the Merovingian kings. It was also made up into books, for the reception of literary works, in which form it was sometimes strengthened by the addition of vellum leaves which encased the quires ; and, as far as can be ascertained from extant remains, it was used thus in Italy and France down to the 10th century. Skins of animals have doubtless served as a writing material from the very earliest period of the use of letters. Instances of the use of leather in western Asia are recorded by ancient writers ; and from Herodotus we learn that the lonians applied to the later-imported papyrus the name Si^epcu, by which they already desig nated their writing material of leather. The Jews also have retained the ancient Eastern custom, and still in scribe the law upon leathern rolls. The use of parch ment (TrepyafjLrjv-ij, charta pergamena) may be considered a revival of the ancient use of skins, now prepared by a new method attributed to Eumenes II., king of Pergamum (197-158 B.C.), who was opposed by the jealousy of the Ptolemies in his endeavours to establish a library in his capital. They forbade the export of papyrus, and so compelled him to revert to the ancient custom. The new material was prepared in such a way as to be fit to receive writing on both sides, and could thus be conveni ently made up into book-form, the O-W/ACXTIOV. The ancient name St</>$epcu (Lat., membranae) was also transferred to the new invention. By common consent the name of parchment has in modern times given place to that of vellum, a term properly applicable only to calf-skin, but now generally used to describe a mediaeval skin-book of any kind. Parchment is a title now usually reserved for the hard sheep-skin or other skin material on which law- deeds are engrossed. Purple-stained vellum was used by the Romans for wrappers for their papyrus rolls. In the 3d century it is recorded that entire volumes were made of this ornamen tal substance and written in gold or silver ; and it was against luxury of this kind that St Jerome directed his often-quoted words" in his preface to the book of Job. Examples of such costly MSS. of the 6th century have survived to the present day, as the Codex Argenteus of the Gothic Gospels at Upsala, the fragments of the illustrated Genesis at Vienna, the leaves of the purple Gospels in the Cottonian Library and elsewhere, the Codex Rossanensis, lately discovered, and some others. Some richly stained leaves of the 8th century remain in the Canterbury Gospels (Royal MS., 1 E. vi.) in the British Museum. On the Continent the great impetus given to the production of splendid MSS. under the rule of Charlemagne revived the art of staining ; and several fine examples of it exist in MSS. of the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. At a later period, when the art was forgotten, the surface only of the vellum was painted in imitation of the older staining which soaked into the substance of the skin. Other colours besides purple were sometimes employed, particularly in the period of the Renaissance, to paint or stain vellum; but MSS. so treated are rather to be regarded as curiosities produced by the caprice of the moment. Cotton paper (charta bombycina) is said to have been known to the Chinese at a remote period, and to have passed into use among the Arabs early in the 8th century. It was imported into Constantinople, and was used for Greek MSS. in the 13th century. In Italy and the West it never made much way. Rag paper came into general use in Europe in the 14th century, and gradually displaced vellum. In the 15th century MSS. of vellum and paper mixed were common. See PAPER. With regard to the forms in which writing material was made up, the waxen tablets have already been referred to, and will be more minutely described below. Ancient papyri usually appear in the form of rolls ; vellum was made up into books. The roll (KVLV?>PO<;, volumtn ; later, elXrjrdpLov, flXrjTov, e^e/A^/xa, rotidus) was the ordinary form of written documents known to the ancients. When a work was contained in several rolls, a single roll was called /3i /3Aos, /3i/3AtW, vohimen, charta ; later, TO/XOS. From the circumstance of the Bible filling many rolls it acquired such titles as pandectes and bibliotheca, the latter of which remained in use down to the 14th century. The title of the work was written at the end of the roll ; and at the same place was recorded the number of columns and lines, o-Tt^ot, which it contained probably for the purpose of estimating the price. To roll and unroll was fiAeu/ and eetAeiv, plicare and explicare ; the work unrolled and read to the end was the liber explicitus. Hence comes the com mon explicit written at the end of a work ; and, from the analogy of incipit liber in titles, the word was afterwards taken for a verb, and appears in such phrases as explicit liber, explicit, expliceat, &c. The book- form was adopted from the waxen tablets, and the name caudex or codex was also taken over. It has been inferred, from the terms in which Martial speaks of vellum books, that they were articles of luxury at Rome; and, although no examples have survived from classical times, and none were found in the ruins of Herculaueum, the sumptuousness of the earliest extant volumes supports this view. The shape in which they are made up during the early centuries of the Middle Ages is the broad quarto. The quires or gatherings of which the book was formed generally consisted, in the earliest examples, of four sheets folded to make eight leaves (TET/DUS or TerpaSiov, quaternio), although occasionally quinterns, or quires of five sheets (ten leaves), were adopted. Sexterns, or quires of six sheets (twelve leaves), came into use at a later period. The quire-mark, or " signature," was usually written at the foot of the last page, but in some early instances (e.g., the Codex Alexandrinus) it appears at the head of the first page. The numbering of the separate leaves in a quire, in the fashion followed by early printers, came in in the 14th century. Catch-words to connect the quires date back to the 12th century. No exact system was followed in ruling the lines and in arranging the sheets when ruled. In the case of papyri it was enough to mark with the pencil the vertical marginal lines to bound the text ; the grain of the papyrus was a sufficient guide for the lines of writing. With the firmer material of vellum it became necessary to rule lines to keep the writing even. These lines were at first drawn