CHAP. VII.

PARCHMENT AND VELLUM.

99

our era, by Eumenes, king of Pergamus; who being desirous of collecting a library which should vie with that of Alexandria, and being prevented by the jealousy of the Ptolemies from obtaining a sufficient quantity of papyrus, had recourse to this substitute; and this adoption of it at Pergamus obtained for it the lasting name of Pergamena (parchment). It was made of the skins of sheep and of calves; but to the former the name of parchment is more correctly applied, as to the latter that of vellum. The use of parchment, or of prepared skins, for writing upon, was not however first suggested at Pergamus; it had been known ages before in Egypt; and "records kept in the temple are mentioned in the time of the eighteenth Dynasty, 1200 years before Eumenes, written upon skins called Thr, or Tahar—a name which, as Mr. Birch thinks, resembles the Chaldee Tzar. Rolls of leather are also found in the tombs, buried with the deceased in lieu of papyri, which are of a very early period, and were adopted in consequence of the high price of the papyrus paper.

The monopoly of the papyrus in Egypt so increased the price of the commodity, that persons in humble life could not afford to purchase it for ordinary purposes; few documents, therefore, are met with written on papyrus, except funereal rituals, the sales of estates, and official papers, which were absolutely required: and so valuable was it, that they frequently obliterated the old writing, and inscribed another document on the same sheet. The same happened afterwards with those on parchment; Cicero mentions palimpsests in his time; and one of his own treatises (de Republicâ) was subjected to this treatment.

For common purposes, pieces of broken pottery, stone, board, and leather were used; an order to visit some monument, a soldier's leave of absence, accounts, and various memoranda, were often written on the fragments of an earthenware vase; an artist sketched a picture, which he was about to introduce in a temple or a sepulchre, on a large flat slab of limestone, or on a wooden panel prepared with a thin coating of stucco: and even parts of funereal rituals were inscribed on square pieces of stone, on stuccoed cloth, or on leather. But though a rigid monopoly secured the value of the paper, it did not ensure the employment of the

66

plant in its manufacture; other and better materials were at length discovered for making paper; and the remarkable prophecy of Isaiah (xix. 7) has come to pass, which foretold the papyrus should "be no more in Egypt: The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more:" and this Egyptian plant no longer grows in Egypt. Yet its name is destined to survive: the "Bible," or book, is so called from the byblus, and its other name, papyrus, will be perpetuated in "paper."

It was perhaps the desire to increase its value that caused its disappearance from Egypt, having been rooted out from every spot except where its cultivation was permitted by the Government; and Pliny either says "it only grew in the nome of Sebennytus ;' or that "nothing was grown in that district but the papyrus."

In the infancy of society various materials were employed for writing, as stones, bricks, tiles, plates of bronze, lead and other metals, wooden tablets, the inner bark (hence liber) and leaves of trees, and the shoulder bones of animals. Wooden tablets, covered with wax, were long in use among the Romans, as well as the papyrus; and the inner bark of trees and pieces of linen had been previously adopted by them about B.C. 440.

Many Eastern people still write on the leaves of trees, or on wooden tablets, and wáraka continues to signify, in Arabic, both "paper" and "a leaf.”

The early Arabs committed their poetry and compositions to the shoulder-bones of sheep: they afterwards obtained the papyrus paper from Egypt, on which the poems called Moallaqât were written, in gold letters; and after their conquests in Asia and Africa, these people so speedily profited by the inventions of the nations they subdued, that parchment was manufactured in Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, which in colour and delicacy might vie with our modern paper. It speedily superseded the use of the papyrus, and continued to be employed until the discovery of the method of making paper from cotton, and silk, called Carta bombycina, which is proved by Montfaucon to have been known at least as early as A.D. 1100; and is supposed to have been invented about the beginning of the

CHAP. VII.

PAPER FROM LINEN.

101

ninth century. Being introduced into Spain from Syria, it was denominated Carta Damascena; and manuscripts on cotton paper are said to exist in the Escurial, written in the eleventh century. There are also some on cotton paper in the Munich library, of the eleventh century; and of linen at the beginning of the fourteenth.

It is a matter of doubt to what nation, and period, the invention of paper manufactured from linen ought to be ascribed. The Chinese were acquainted with the secret of making it from various vegetable substances long before it was known in Europe; the perfection to which they have carried this branch of art continues to excite our admiration; and “the librarian Casiri relates," according to Gibbon, "from credible testimony, that paper was first imported from China to Samarcand A.H. 30 (A.D. 652), and invented, or rather introduced, at Mecca A.H. 88 (A.D. 710)."

It may, however, be questioned whether it was made from linen at that early period, and we have no positive proof of linen paper being known even by the Saracens, prior to the eleventh century. The Moors, as might be expected, soon introduced it into Spain, and the Escurial library is said to contain manuscripts written on this kind of paper, as old as the twelfth century.

But paper of mixed cotton and linen, which was made at the same time, appears to have been in more general use; and linen paper continued to be rare in most European countries till the fifteenth century. That it was known in Germany as early as the year 1312 has been satisfactorily ascertained by existing documents, and a letter on linen paper, written from Germany to Hugh Despencer, about the year 1315, is preserved in the Chapter-house at Westminster; which, even to the water-mark, resembles that made at the present day.

It was not till the close of the sixteenth century that paper was manufactured in England. The first was merely of a coarse brown quality, very similar to that of the modern Arabs, whose skill in this, as in many arts and sciences, has been transferred

supplied us with an annual importation, to the amount of nearly 100,000 pounds.

The tanning and preparation of leather was also a branch of art, in which the Egyptians evinced considerable skill; the leather cutters constituted one of the principal subdivisions of the fourth-class; and a district of the city was exclusively appropriated to them, in the Libyan part of Thebes; where they were known as "the leather-cutters of the Memnonia."

Leather is little capable of resisting the action of damp, and other causes of destruction, so that we cannot reasonably expect to find much of it in a good state of preservation; but the fine quality of the straps, placed across the bodies of mummies, discovered at Thebes, and the beauty of the figures stamped upon them, satisfactorily prove the skill of "the leather cutters," as well as the antiquity of embossing; and those bearing the names of Sheshonk (Shishak), the contemporary of Solomon, and the other kings of that dynasty, are perfectly preserved.

Many of the occupations of their trade are portrayed on the painted walls of the tombs at Thebes. They made shoes, sandals, the coverings and seats of chairs or sofas, bow-cases, and most of the ornamental furniture of the chariot; harps were also adorned with coloured leather, and shields and numerous other things were covered with skin prepared in various ways. They also made skins for carrying water, wine, and other liquids; coated within with a resinous substance, as is still the custom in Egypt.

Part of the process of curing the skins is introduced in the sculptures; and that of dyeing them is mentioned in the Bible,* being doubtless borrowed by the Jews from Egypt. In one instance, a man is represented dipping the hide into a vase, probably containing water, in which it was suffered to soak, preparatory to the lime being applied to remove the hair; a process very similar to that adopted at the present day in the East.

The Arabs prefer the acrid juice of a plant growing in the desert, for the purpose; as its effect is still more rapid, and as it has the advantage of making the skin better and more durable.

* Exod. xxv. 5, "And rams' skins dyed red."

CHAP. VII.

LEATHER CUTTERS.

103

This plant is the Periploca Secamone; its stalks contain a white milky juice, which exudes from it when bruised, and which is so acrid as to be highly injurious to the eye, or to the wounded skin. It supports itself by winding around every neighbouring shrub, and its not ungraceful stalks appear to have been occasionally used by the ancient Egyptians, for the same ornamental purpose as the ivy, the nightshade, and the convolvulus, in forming festoons. But though there is no proof of its having been employed by them in curing skins, it is very probable, as they were so well acquainted with the properties of the plants of the desert and the valley of the Nile; and curriers are represented in the sculptures of Thebes, pounding something in a mortar, which is either the periploca, lime, or some other substance required for the purpose.

According to the Arabs, the method of preparing skins with the periploca (their Ghulga) is as follows:-" The skins are first put into flour and salt for three days, and are cleansed of all the fat and impurities of the inside. The stalks of the plant, being pounded between large stones, are then put into water, which is applied to the inner side of the skin for one day, and the hair having fallen off, the skin is left to dry for two or three days, and the process is completed."

The

The mode of stretching or bending leather over a form is frequently represented at Thebes; and the semicircular knife, similar to that of our modern curriers, is commonly used by them. curriers and shoemakers had also a sort of chisel, the common awl (specimens of which have been found at Thebes, similar to our own), a stone for polishing the leather, the cutting table, the bending form, the horn, and a few other utensils; and a prepared skin, the emblem of their trade, was suspended, together with ready-made shoes and other articles, to indicate their skill, and to invite a customer. (Woodcuts 333, 390, and 392, part 1.)

The shops of an Egyptian town were probably similar to those of Cairo and other Eastern cities, which consist of a square room, open in front, with falling or sliding shutters to close it at night; and the goods, ranged on shelves or suspended against the walls, are exposed to the view of those who pass. In front is generally a raised seat, where the owner of the shop and his customers sit