The term ἁπλὰ was applied to a “book” or writing completed on a single strip of papyrus and comprising therefore only one leaf.[135]
The word τόμος (from which comes our English tome) occurs only after the Alexandrian era. It means literally a slice or a cutting, and when used with precision stood, as to-day, for a portion or division of the entire work. A diminutive of this is τομάριον.
Ὁ χάρτης indicated originally a papyrus sheet or roll which had not yet been written upon, but came later to be used also for a papyrus manuscript.[136]
Τεῦχος, which had for its earlier signification tool or implement, was later used for a chest, repository, or book-case, and, after the Alexandrian age, came finally into use as a term for a set or series of (literary) works.
Γράμμα, meaning in the first place “that which is graven or written,” and then “the letter” or the scripture, is used, although but rarely, for book, occurring more often in the plural Γράμματα,[137] and still more frequently in the form Συγγράμματα, “words written together.” The Σύγγραμμα was a collection of manuscript rolls tied together in a bundle or faggot, called by the Latins fasces.
The famous term Λόγος, meaning in the first place that which is said, the word, the utterance, and then the story or narrative, came occasionally to be referred to as the book, or in the plural form, Λόγοι, as the books, writings, or works of a particular writer. It was, however, the substance of the writings and not their physical form which was then referred to, and the expression seems to have been applied only to writings in prose.
The previous terms (with the exception of Λόγος, which, having to do with the thought of the writer and not with the form of the writing, could stand for any intellectual production) were all employed only for books written on papyrus. A material which preceded the use of papyrus, and which, with improved methods of preparation, long outlasted this, although occupying a far less important place in ancient literature, was obtained from skins or hides. The use of this material for writing was borrowed from the Phœnicians, from whom were also purchased the skins themselves. The dressed skins were called διφθέραι, and writings upon skins came to be known by the same name. Ctesias speaks of the διφθέραι βασιλικαὶ, royal books (or writings or documents) of the Persians, and Herodotus says that such skins were used in the earlier times for book-material not only in Greece, but even in Egypt, the home of the papyrus. In Greece, the papyrus, introduced from Egypt through the Phœnician traders, appears at one time to have almost entirely replaced the dressed skins, while later, owing to the improved methods for the preparation of the skins, these again found favor. It was, however, not until the production of parchment (membrana or pergamena), that the value of skins for literary purposes began to be properly understood, and even parchment made its way but slowly among writers in competition with the long-established papyrus, which it was, however, destined to outlast for many centuries. The name parchment, pergamena, is derived from the city of Pergamum, where, according to the tradition, it was first prepared under the direction of King Eumenes II., about 190 B.C. It seems certain, however, that parchment had been produced considerably before this date, but a great impetus was doubtless given at this time to its use, and its manufacture was improved, owing to the embargo placed by Ptolemy Philadelphus on the exportation from Egypt of papyrus. Ptolemy was, it appears, jealous of the growing fame of the great library of Pergamum, which was beginning to rival that of Alexandria, and he hoped that by cutting off the supply of book-material from other countries he could compel the scholars of the world to resort to Alexandria.
Pliny, writing about 250 years later, appears not to have believed that the new parchment could serve as in any way an adequate substitute for the papyrus. He considered it very fortunate that the Ptolemies had finally consented to withdraw the interdict on the exportation of papyrus, as otherwise the history of mankind in the past (immortalitas hominum) might have been utterly lost.
Excepting for the temporary impetus given to the use of the parchment among the writers of Pergamum during the embargo on the Egyptian papyrus, its introduction among literary circles proceeded but slowly. It came into competition more directly with wax tablets for private notes and memoranda than with papyrus for use in books.
For correspondence, at least for the longer letters, papyrus seems for some centuries to have been found the most convenient material. The author of the Second Epistle of John evidently wrote on papyrus,[138] and in the long series of letters between Cicero and his several correspondents, all the references are to the same material.