paper. The name of
this older material was _papyrus_ (Gr. {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} and {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH TONOS~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}). As a writing material it was known in Egypt from
remote antiquity. It was plentiful in Rome in the time of the C?sars,
and it continued, both in Grecian and Roman Egypt, to be the ordinary
material employed down to the middle of the tenth century of our era. In
Europe, too, it continued in common use long after vellum had been
adopted for books, though more especially for letters and accounts. St.
Jerome mentions vellum as an alternative material in case papyrus should
fail (Ep. vii.), and St. Augustine (Ep. xv.) apologises for using vellum
instead of papyrus.[3] Papyrus was also used in the early Middle Ages.
Examples, _made up into book-form_--_i.e._ in leaves, with sometimes a
few vellum leaves among them for stability--are still extant. Among such
are some seven or eight books in various European libraries, the best
known being the Homilies of St.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31