Pictis luxurieris umbilicis;
Et te purpura delicata velet,
Et cocco rubeat superbus index.
| Use of oil. |
Use of oil.The oil of cedar wood, mentioned in the first of these lines, was smeared over the back of papyrus manuscripts to preserve them from book-worms.
The act of unrolling a manuscript to read it was called explicare, and when the reader had come to the end it was opus explicitum. In mediaeval times from the false analogy of the word (hic) incipit, a verb explicit was invented, and was often written at the end of codices to show that the manuscript was complete to the end, though, strictly speaking the word is only applicable to a roll.
| Mediaeval use of papyrus. |
Mediaeval use of papyrus.The use of papyrus paper for manuscripts to some extent continued till mediaeval times. Papyrus manuscripts of the sixth and seventh century A.D. are not uncommon, and, long after vellum had superseded papyrus paper for the writing of books, short documents, such as letters, Papal deeds and the like, were still frequently written on papyrus. Papal Briefs on papyrus still exist which were written as late as the eleventh century.
| Black ink. Carbon ink. |
Black ink.The black ink which was used for classical manuscripts was of the kind now known as "Indian" or more correctly "Chinese ink," which cannot be kept in a fluid state, but has to be rubbed up with water from day to day as it is required. One of the menial offices which Aeschines when a boy had to perform in his father's school was "rubbing the ink," τὸ μέλαν τρίβων; see Demos. De Corona, p. 313. Carbon ink.This kind of ink (μέλαν or μελάνιον, atramentum librarium) simply consists of finely divided particles of carbon, mixed with gum or with size made by boiling down shreds of parchment. It was obtained by burning a resinous substance and collecting the soot on a cold flat surface, from which it could afterwards be scraped off. The soot had then to be very finely ground, mixed with a gummy medium and then moulded into shape and dried. The process is described by Pliny, Hist. Nat. XXXV. 41; and better still by Vitruvius, VII. 10.