It is not determinable, either at what time or for what reasons, the change was made in the form of the manuscript from the continuous roll to the book of separate leaves. As we have noted, it is the fact that "necessity is the mother of invention," the world over and throughout history. It is also the fact that the improvements of inventions have ever been the order of development, inasmuch as few inventions, if any, in any age or realm, have ever come into existence full-grown—are other than improvements, and sometimes after long and patient and untiring persistence, upon earlier and it may be crude and imperfect originals. Thus the improvements in the preparation of skins and papyrus, making it possible to use both sides of the materials, doubtless facilitated the transition to the book of leaves and pages. This change was gradual and was furthered or even occasioned it may be by utilitarian demands, or was prompted by economy in the use of book-making materials which were constantly enhancing in value. Professor Dobschütz has this to say concerning the change from the papyrus roll to the parchment book: "The use of this latter form seems to originate in the law schools; the codex, or parchment book, is at first the designation of a Roman law-book. But at an early date the Christian Church adopted this form as the more convenient one and gave it its circulation."[25] The fact that parchment and vellum increased in cost and became less and less available as writing material led to the custom, during periods of the Middle Ages, of transcribing one work over another, and after the earlier had been obliterated. This "composite" writing was a "palimpsest," called, technically, a codex rescriptus, and many times obscured or destroyed an ancient and valuable production. Some of these "palimpsests," though fragments of ancient literature, both sacred and classic, are valuable and have been "recovered" or restored by the use of chemical reagents coupled with the all but infinite patience of the decipherers. A commentary of the Psalms by Augustine, written over Cicero's "De Republica," and a treatise of little value by a Syrian monk, Ephraem, superimposing a valuable fifth century manuscript of the New Testament, are examples of palimpsests in classic and Biblical literature. Some of the writings of Livy and certain books of Pliny the Younger have been recovered from superimposed writings of little or no historical value. Two facts concerning the change in the form of manuscript books are demonstrable: (1) That the first books were "rolls" or "volumes"; and (2) that, early in the Christian Era, books of "leaves" had come into relatively common use.
It is not an insignificant fact that the earliest manuscripts in the form of books with leaves show the largest number of columns to a page—approximating thus more nearly the continuous columns of the earlier "roll" book. In other words, the earliest and best known of the Greek manuscripts of the Bible—the manuscripts which are most relied upon by the scholars for all critical, scriptural study—the codices known, respectively, as the "א," or the Sinaitic, treasured at Petrograd; the "B," or the Vatican, kept at Rome; the "A," or the Alexandrian, deposited in the Manuscript Room of the British Museum; and the "C," or the Ephraem, the famous "palimpsest" preserved in the National Library at Paris (all of them written in the fourth and fifth centuries) are "books" of leaves—the one most similar to the ancient "roll" book in form and arrangement of the pages being, presumably, the oldest.
It has relation to our discussion and is of illustrative interest and value while considering ancient literature to note, in this connection, some characteristics of these preëminent manuscripts of the Bible to which we have just alluded. The Sinaitic Manuscript—one of the most valuable copies of the scriptures in the Greek tongue—was unearthed by Professor Tischendorf in the convent of St. Catharine, Mt. Sinai, in 1859, and dates, in the judgment of the critics, from the middle of the fourth century A. D. This Manuscript is transcribed on 346½ leaves of vellum, each leaf being 13½ inches in width and 14-7/8 inches in height and contains four columns of 48 lines each to a page, or eight columns to the open book. The Vatican Manuscript, written at about the same time, has three columns to a page, or six columns to the open book. The Alexandrian Manuscript, written in the fifth century, has two columns to a page. The Ephraem Manuscript, also written in the fifth century, has but a single column to a page. The Sinaitic Manuscript, because of its distinction in having the largest number of columns to a page, has been given, by some of the Biblical scholars, the first rank among the oldest extant copies of the Christian scriptures. The basis for this estimate is, largely, its nearer approach to the ancient rolls with their cross-wise columns.
[IX]
PAPYRUS
The commonest material upon which to write the records of history and all literature for some centuries, both before and after the time of Christ, was that manufactured from the papyrus plant, or reed, which grew in great abundance in the stagnant pools occasioned by the annual overflow of the Nile;—it grew also in the marshes of the Euphrates, and elsewhere, though for centuries the only source of the papyrus for literature was in Egypt.
Papyrus as a material upon which to write was both cheaper and more plentiful than parchment, and for these reasons it was more commonly utilized than any other prior to the invention of paper. The papyrus, while more plentiful and less expensive than parchment, was not inexpensive as a finished commodity; indeed, it was so expensive that the poor were often denied this material for writing. It is recorded that, in the list of expenses relating to the rebuilding of the Erechtheum at Athens (B. C. 407), two sheets of papyri cost at the rate of a drachma and two obols each, or a little over a shilling of our money.[26] The author of an old work gives a quaint description of the plant and of its preparation for use: "It runs up in a triangular stalk to the height of about fifteen feet and is usually about a foot and a half in circumference, sometimes more. When the outer skin is taken off there are several films, or inner skins, one within another and naturally partakable from each other. These, when separated from the stalk and flaked, made the paper which the ancients used, and which, from the name of the tree, they called Papyrus."[27]
Concerning the process of its preparation, as we learn from various sources: The inner skins or fibrous rinds of the plant were peeled off, somewhat as the outer bark of a birch tree may be detached, and then these strips of the papyrus were placed one upon another so that the "grain," or fiber, of each strip would extend crosswise to the other—sometimes three layers, even, were superimposed one upon another—after the manner of the modern two or three-ply wood veneering. The purpose of this process was to give greater strength and durability to the writing material made therefrom. The glutinous juice in these strips, (or, perhaps they were moistened by the waters of the Nile) on being subjected to pressure were glued together in one intact sheet. These larger sheets were afterwards smoothed and polished, bleached in the sun, and then cut up into strips to the dimensions of eight, twelve, or even fifteen inches in width as desired, for the rolls, or, as at a later time, into short, rectangular sections for the leaves of books.
The writing on these rolls, as on those made of parchment, was in columns, crosswise at convenient intervals, with a margin at the top and the bottom of the columns. The length of the column lines of writing was governed by the writer's taste or inclination, or the character of the composition—if poetical, by the metre. The size of the rolls, however, was determined by the amount of writing to be recorded—one of the longer books of the New Testament; e. g., would constitute an ordinary roll, while it would require thirty or forty or even more rolls on which to transcribe the entire Bible. According to Birt, the average length of the papyrus roll slightly exceeded forty feet, but instances are cited of rolls reaching the length of one hundred and fifty feet. This writer is authority for the statement that a Homeric papyrus roll one hundred and twenty feet in length was burned in Byzantium in the fifth century. Mr. Putnam observes in connection with the size of the papyrus rolls: "It is possible the writer of the Apocalypse may have had one of these enormous scrolls in his vision when he beheld the record of the sins of Babylon reaching to the heavens."[28] The larger papyrus books were thus, literally, "weighty tomes," and, because they were too heavy and cumbrous to hold in the hand, were read from a table or desk. The cumbrous character of these large volumes was the basis for the dictum of the Alexandrian grammarian, "A big book is a big nuisance."