Papȳrus
（
πάπυρος). Information as to the papyrus reed, celebrated
in antiquity as providing material for writing, is obtained from the study of existing plants
believed to belong to the same genus, and also from the statements of ancient writers.
There are two species of the papyrus plant (
Cyperus Papyrus, cf.
κύπειρος, “a reed”) recognized to-day. One, the
Cyperus Syriacus, mentioned by Theophrastus as growing with the sweet-scented
calamus on the borders of a Syrian lake, was transplanted to Sicily by the Arabs in the tenth
century, and is found at the present time in various parts of that island. The other species
is found in Nubia and Abyssinia. This is the descendant of the old Egyptian papyrus which was
cultivated in antiquity in the delta of the Nile. Herodotus (ii. 92, 96) and Strabo (799
foll.) speak of papyrus as belonging to lower Egypt. Since, however, it has disappeared from
what was anciently believed to be its home, it is probable that its
presence there was originally due to transplanting and assiduous cultivation. These two
species differ from each other mainly in the length of the stalk—that of the former
growing much higher than that of the latter. Other minor differences are also noticeable.
The most valuable description given by ancient writers is that of Theophrastus, the
successor of Aristotle in charge of the Lyceum, in his
Historia Plantarum
(
Περὶ Φυτῶν Ἱστορία, iv. 8, 3). He describes the
papyrus as growing along the Nile in water of about two cubits (three feet) in depth, with a
root as thick as a man's arm and of ten cubits (fifteen feet) or more in length. This root,
rising somewhat above the soil, sends forth slen
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Papyrus Plant.
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der shoots into the mud. The stalks (
πάπυροι) are
about four cubits (six feet) in height, and are of triangular shape. These bear no fruit, but
produce a soft, hair-like tuft as a head. The roots are used for firewood and for making
various articles of furniture. The papyrus itself (Theophrastus refers to the stalk) is put to
many uses. Boats are made from it, and from the
βίβλος (the
substance within the stalk) sails, mats, clothing, coverings, and ropes. The
βιβλία (
chartae, or sheets made of
βίβλος) are most familiar to people of other lands. Above all, this
plant is useful as a means of subsistence, since the inhabitants chew it either raw, boiled,
or roasted, drawing the juice and rejecting the fibre.
Pliny (
Pliny H. N. xiii. 12, 77 foll.) repeats the statements of Theophrastus, but
enlarges his mere reference to
βιβλία into an extended
account of the manufacture of paper from the papyrus plant. The following description is based
upon the statements of Pliny ; but that author's general and unscientific treatment of his
subject and the inaccuracies in the text have caused much uncertainty concerning various
points.
Paper was made from the pith or cellular tissue within the stalk. It was once believed that
the material was the outer rind of the plant. The word
liber, which
refers to bark (once used for writing material), and Pliny 's use of
philyrae, in his description of the thin strips of web-like material, are misleading.
Pliny elsewhere describes
philyra as the inner bark of the lime-tree. Ulpian, of the third century
A.D. (
Dig. 32, 52), sets apart
philyrae as of different
material from
chartae. Cassiodorus (sixth century), in his
Variae, uses the following expressions, which show that the pith or inner
tissue is designated:
viscera nivea viventium herbarum mollities in medullis;
bibula teneritudine spongeum lignum. This tissue was cut into strips (
schidae,
σχίζειν) or
inae (
Fest. p. 104:
ina quae pars chartae est tenuissima;
p. 81, 4: a
tenuitate inarum quas Graeci in chartis ita
appellant), which were made as broad and thin as possible. Those taken from the
centre of the stalk were the best, while the quality became poorer the nearer the rind was
approached. The strips (
schidae) were arranged in parallel lines upon a
board (
tabula) wet with Nile water. They were then moistened with paste
and overlaid with strips placed at right angles. Thus
texitur is used
of the process and
plagula first of the unfinished page opposed to
pagina the completed page, although both words afterwards were used for the
page (
σελίς) of the roll. These two layers of strips were
pressed closely together until they formed one sheet. The remainder of the process consisted
in drying in the sunlight and polishing with a shell (
Mart.xiv.
209) or some instrument of ivory. While the
paginae (
σελίδες) might be used separately, they were regularly joined with
others to form a roll (
volumen,
τόμος).
The chief defects which were to be avoided were roughness (
scabritia),
dampness (
humor), spots (
lentigines), and streaks
(
taeniae), running down the middle of the
pagina
and rendering the paper spongy. The paste used was made of flour and boiling water, with the
addition of a little vinegar. Ordinary glue, or workman's paste (
glutinum
fabrile), was not useful for this purpose, as it made the paper brittle. Pliny states
that the separation of the pith into strips was accomplished by the use of the needle (
acu). It is a question whether broad and thin strips could be obtained by the
use of a needle. Birt (
Antike Buchwesen, p. 231) suggests that
acu may be a translation of some Greek expression, as, perhaps,
ὀξεῖ τινι ὀργάνῳ. The language of Pliny , as commonly interpreted, indicates
that the water of the Nile, when muddy, served as glue (
turbidus liquor vim
glutinis praebet). This is correct if
glutinis is a genitive, but
Birt shows that Pliny knew only
glutinum-i, and
glutinis is then a dative; and the inference is that paste was used, and water served
to make it effective in uniting the strips. Pliny also states that in making the roll the best
sheets were placed first, while those of poorer quality were at the end of the roll. Such an
arrangement was most natural, as the most durable sheets would be on the outside; and if a
portion of the roll alone was used the best would come first.
The manufacture of paper from papyrus belonged almost exclusively to Egypt and in particular
to the city of Alexandria. One kind of paper, the Fanniana, was made in Rome, but the process
was merely additional treatment of a paper manufactured in Egypt. Papyrus
chartae differed in form, quality, and the care bestowed in preparation. The essential
difference was that of form, as it will be seen that difference in form implied a difference
in quality and care in manufacture. This form was determined by the breadth of the single
sheet before it became part of a roll, and not by the height of the page,
as was once believed. The height varied from eight to thirteen inches (Birt,
Antike
Buchwesen, pp. 252-253). The breadth depended upon the number of
schidae which were placed side by side to form the lower layer of the
plagula. The broader the page the greater the advantage both to writer and reader, as
there was less interruption to the continuity of the writing. In bound books the strain comes
upon the binding; in the rolls, however, the individual page must stand the strain. Hence, the
poorer the quality the narrower the page, as the liability to tear was greater in the large
sheets than in the small. The great object in manufacturing paper was the attainment of the
greatest breadth (
latitudo) and thinness (
tenuitas）
consistent with toughness (
densitas) and strength. Whiteness (
candor) and smoothness of surface (
levitas) were also
desirable in papyrus paper. Pliny mentions nine varieties of paper. (
a）
The Augusta. This was the best quality known in Pliny 's days, though previously the best
quality had been called Hieratica. It was thirteen
digiti (nine and
one-half inches) wide. (
b) The Livia. This was of the same breadth as the
former, though the quality was somewhat inferior to it. (
c) The
Hieratica. This name was given to the third quality in the time of the Empire, probably after
the death of Augustus. It was eleven
digiti (eight inches) broad. (
d) The Amphitheatrica. This was so called because of its being
manufactured near the Amphitheatre of Alexandria. It was nine
digiti (six
and one-half inches) broad. (
e) The Fanniana. This was the Amphitheatrica
remade in Rome into a finer and broader paper. It was ten
digiti (seven
inches) broad. (
f) The Saïtica, from Saïs, in Egypt,
was eight
digiti (five to six inches) broad. (
g）
The Taeniotica, named from a tongue (
ταινία) of land near
Alexandria. It was sold by weight and not by quality. (
h) The
Emporetica, which had a rough surface, and was used as wrappingpaper. It was six
digiti (four and three-eighths inches) wide. (
i) The
Claudia. The emperor Claudius made a combination of the first two qualities by placing strips
(
schidae) of the first over those of the second, producing, thus, a
new paper—better, in certain respects, than the Augusta. Claudius also increased the
width until it reached a full Roman foot (eleven and one-half inches). The Claudia was
preferred to all others, though the Augusta was still used for correspondence. The Claudia was
of such a quality that both sides of the paper could be used (
opisthographa). The usual custom was to write only on one side of the page (cf.
Juv.i. 5;
Mart.viii. 62; Pliny ,
Epist. iii. 5, 17).
For letters and documents single pages (
paginae), termed
schidae or
schidulae (
Mart.iv.
89), were used. However, even for these purposes, but particularly for books, a number
of sheets were joined to form a roll (
volumen). The length of these rolls
varied from a few pages to a large number. The reading
vicenae in Pliny
(
Pliny H. N. xiii. 77:
numquam plures scapo quam vicenae) is corrupt. Birt suggests
ducenae. Egyptian papyri have been found to vary in length from 70 to 140 feet. Birt
considers 39 feet the average length of a classical book-roll. A roll containing the entire
history of Thucydides, which required 578 pages, or a length of 265 feet, has been mentioned
by the scholiast. In like manner a roll containing the
Iliad and
Odyssey of Homer, and another, the
Odyssey of Livius
Andronicus, are said to have existed. On the other hand, one literary work might be separated
into smaller rolls. The fourth book of the
Rhetoric of Philodemus was arranged
in two rolls, and the Homeric papyrus of Elephantiné contained only the
twenty-fourth book of the
Iliad. The size of the volume corresponded to the
character of the contents. Letters and poetry were written on small rolls; history, on rolls
of larger size (Isidor.
Orig. vi. 12, 1).
The first page of the roll was termed
πρωτόκολλον (
protocollum); the last,
ἐσχατόκολλιον
(
Mart. 2, 6,
3). The term
macrocollum, employed by Cicero in designating the
paper used by himself (
Ad Att. xiii. 25, xvi. 3), was applied in his time to
the Hieratica and the finer grades of papyrus. Pliny 's statement (
Pliny H. N. xiii. 80,
Erat et cubitalis macrocollis）
means that the
macrocolla might reach the breadth of a cubit (eighteen
inches). To Pliny all kinds of paper superior in quality to the Saïtica were
macrocolla. The writing was as a rule in columns, so that each page
represented a column. The term
σελίδες, originally of the
rowing-benches of a galley, then of the columns of writing, finally was used as equivalent to
paginae. The portion of the roll which marked the joining of the sheets
was not used. However, in public documents before Caesar, the writing ran across the combined
sheets, not in
paginis, but
transversa charta (cf.
Suet. Caes. 56). Among the Ravenna diplomata of the fifth to the
tenth centuries there are papyri written
transversa charta (Marini,
Pap. Dipl.).
The standard of measurement in a roll was the page (
σελίς,
pagina), as this was closely related to the size of the roll. The number
of pages was regularly marked at the end of the book, but in some cases each page was
numbered. In other rolls the number of pages is found on the
titulus. In
estimating the contents of a roll, it was customary to use lines as a standard of reckoning,
not chapters or pages. This method of reckoning is the so-called stichometry. The number of
lines (
στίχοι and
ἔπη,
versus) in prose-writing and of verses in poetry was given at the close of
the writing. This
στίχος was the normal hexameter line of
thirty-five letters on the average (Birt, p. 197), or sixteen syllables (Diels,
Herm. xvii. p. 377 foll.). The normal hexameter verse required the
broad papyrus, so that the lines of narrow pages were estimated only as parts of the normal
line. Theopompus states the length of his orations as 20,000
ἔπη, and of his historical works as of 150,000
ἔπη; so the emperor Iustinian calculates 150,000
versus in
his
De Confirmatione Digestorum.
In making the rolls the last sheet was folded upon a strip of wood termed
umbilicus,
ὀμφαλός (cf.
ad umbilicum
adducere, “to finish a work,”
Hor.
Epod. 14, 8;
Mart.iv. 89). The ends of the
umbilicus were gilded (
Mart. iii. 2, 9), and the edges (
frons) of the cylinder were
polished (Ovid,
Trist. iii. 1, 13;
Mart. i. 67, 10;
Catull. 22, 8) and coloured (
nigra frons) (Ovid,
Trist. i. 1, 8). The roll was stained with
cedar-oil, as a protection against moths (Vitruv. ii. 9, 13;
Mart.iii.
2); in consequence, the roll had a yellow colour (Ovid,
Trist. iii. 1,
13). There was fastened to the roll a strip of parchment, which contained the title of the
book. This was termed
titulus or
index (
σίττυβος =a strip of leather, or
σίλλυβος=an index). The roll was usually enveloped in a
parchment cover (
membrana,
διφθέρα),
outside of which the
titulus hung. In the case of the papyri of
Herculaneum the envelope itself was of papyrus. If several rolls belonged to the same work, it
was customary to bind these in a bundle (
fasces). In reading, the roll
was held with both hands.
There are in existence to-day Egyptian papyri of great age. (See illustration, p. 28.) The
oldest, the Prisse papyrus, which is kept in Paris, is estimated as dating from 1800 to 2000
years B.C. The earliest Greek papyri in existence, containing the fragments of the
Antiope of Euripides, date about the second century B.C. Others dating from
the last century B.C. contain orations of Lycophron and Euxenippus.
The earliest Latin papyri are those of Herculaneum, which certainly date from the early part
of the first century A.D. After these come the deeds of Ravenna dating fifth-tenth century and
papal documents of the eighth-tenth century. In 1752 there were discovered in the Villa
Suburbana at Herculaneum a large number of blackened rolls which, though at first disregarded,
were finally recognized as literary works. It was not until 1754 that any success was attained
in opening the rolls. In that year a monk, Piaggio, unrolled what proved to be a portion of a
work of Philodemus. (See De Jorio,
Officina de' Papiri, Real Museo Borbonico,
Naples, 1825.)
In the forty-eight years following only seventeen rolls were opened. The authorities of
Naples took little interest in the matter, and the first publication did not appear until
1793. In 1800, George IV., then Prince of Wales, sent Bishop Hayter to Italy to copy the
papyri. Bishop Hayter was driven from Italy in the French war of 1806, but managed to save one
hundred lead-pencil fac-similes and an engraving of the
Carmen Latinum. These
are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The British Museum possesses several opened
and unopened rolls. This library on papyrus was found to contain the works of Epicurean
philosophers—Epicurus, Demetrius, Polystratus, Colotes, and particularly of
Philodemus; also notes on Chrysippus, the There were found twenty-four Latin rolls all in one
capsa (book-box). Of these Latin rolls only one, No. 817 (
Carmen
Latinum de Bello Actiaco), has been opened. (See page 1157.) As the larger number of
the rolls appear to have been written by Philodemus, and as no rolls save the Latin are of
later date than Philodemus, it is possible that the library originally belonged to him. The
Latin rolls were probably a chance addition in the time of the early Empire to a library of an
earlier date. Various opinions have been expressed as to the authorship of the
Carmen
Latinum. Varius or Rabirius, or a little-known Albinius, has at different times been
mentioned as the author. It was, at any rate, the work of some insignificant poet of the early
Empire. The following works contain the poem: Kreyssig,
Commentatio de Sallustii
Historiae Fragmentis, vol. iii.
(1835); Riese,
Anthol.
Lat. vol. i.
(1870); Baehrens,
Poetae Latini Minores, vol.
i. pp. 212 foll.
(Leipzig, 1819): Baehrens used the Oxford plates loaned him by
the Bodleian librarian; Comparetti,
Relazione sui Papiri Ercolanesi: Reale Acad. dei
Lincei, 1879; Spengel,
Die Hercul. Rollen （
Philologus,
1863, sup. vol.); Gompertz,
Hercul. Studien (Leipzig, 1865-66);
Herculanensium Voluminum quae Supersunt (Naples, 1793-1809, 2 vols.
Collectio altera, 1862-76); Scott,
Fragmenta
Herculanensia (Oxford, 1885).
Bibliography.—Guilandini,
Comment. in Plin.
de Papyro Capita (Venice, 1572); Montfaucon,
Diss. sur la Plante
Appelée Papyrus in
Mém. de l'Acad. d. Inscr. vi.
p. 592 foll.; Baumstark,
Pauly's Realencycl. v. p. 1154 foll.; Sprengel and
Krause in Ersch and Gruber's
Encyclop.; Parlatore,
Mém. de
l'Acad. des Sciences, xii. p. 469 foll.
(Paris, 1854); Dureau de la
Malle, “Mémoire sur le Papyrus et la Fabrication du Papier chez les
Anciens,” in
Mém. de l'Institut, vol. xix. i. p. 140;
Wilkinson,
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. pp. 146- 151
(1837); Blümner,
Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und
Künste der Griechen und Römern, vol. i. p. 308 foll.; Wattenbach,
Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, p. 80
(1875); Marquardt,
Das Privatleben der Römern, p. 784 foll.
(1879);
Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (1882); and the article
“Papyrus” in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
