In considering the materials of books it needs to be held in mind that the time of a manuscript's production was seldom affixed to it until a late date; that must be determined or inferred from collateral data. We would instance the "water marks" of manufactured paper as an example of these collateral data helping to determine the age of a manuscript. It is a well known fact that every paper manufactory has its own individual mark of identification for its output. This is its protective "water mark" and is impressed in the texture or fiber of every sheet made, and at regular intervals in the sheet. This is by no means an exclusively modern device of authentication, for these were known as early as the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century, when the quality of the paper was improved, the "water marks" became more elaborate and, as early as the sixteenth century, the name of the maker of the paper was inserted. These marks of identification greatly aid the antiquarian student in fixing the date of any writing. They are often, too, of legal significance, inasmuch as important cases in courts of law in our times—and earlier times—have been known to turn upon such facts of evidence as the "water marks" of the paper used in documents, as other cases have turned upon the kind or quality of the ink or the "hand" in which the documents at issue were written. An incident narrated in a book by Dr. N. D. Hillis may not be historical though it does illustrate what has often actually occurred: "In looking at the thick white paper, upon a sheet of which the guide said that the deed had been written, John noticed that it was the usual parchment paper of the time—a paper strong, and made of linen, so that it might survive the rough usage of the settler's cabin. Holding it up between his eyes and the sun he noticed this water-mark and stamp—'C. Saur, Philadelphia, 1787.' The purported deed was dated 1740."[23] The press dispatches some time ago reported a case before the Senate in one of our states in which the conviction or the acquittal of the defendant turned, largely, upon the quality of the ink which had been used in signing a certain check, given in payment of a claim. It was admitted by experts on both sides that the ink employed in signing the check was of a different quality than that upon which the stub of the check had been filled out, and that the writing on stub and check, respectively, had not been made at the same time.
It is evident then that the materials themselves and the changes through which they passed in the process of their improvement, the ink and its constituents, the "hand" of the writer and, as well, the peculiarities of the author's style of thought and expression as evidenced by his other and well-known composition (there is a "gait" of mind as well as of walk)—all become, so to speak, the "water marks" which determine or help to determine, approximately, the time at which a book or writing was made or produced. To illustrate: If the antiquarian should "unearth" a manuscript having evidences of great antiquity and should ascertain that it was written upon "cotton paper" that fact would assure him, without any additional evidence whatever, that the document could not be much, if any, earlier than the ninth century, for it was then that cotton paper began to displace the Egyptian papyrus. Or, if the writing was upon "linen paper" then he would be assured by the same kind of evidence that, probably, it was not made before the fourteenth century when paper made from linen rags first came into more common use.
[VIII]
PARCHMENT AND VELLUM
The skins of animals—sheep, lambs, and calves, and, sometimes, of antelopes, goats, asses, and swine—have served, and from the earliest use of written language, as the favored and the best material upon which to write. By different modes of treatment the skins of animals were converted into "leather," "parchment," and "vellum," respectively, as the finished product. Leather, tanned soft, and usually dyed red or yellow, was the material earliest used by the Hebrews. Upon this they wrote their statutes and religious history, and especially the Scroll of the Law. The Yemanite Rolls (Pentateuch and other writings) are all of red skin; and the Pentateuch rolls for the Jews of a certain section of China are of white leather.[24] According to Ctesias and Herodotus, the royal archives of ancient Persia were written on leather. Extant leather rolls are ascribed to the date of about 2,000 B. C. And there are treasured skin-rolls, in the British Museum and elsewhere, which are believed to have been prepared and inscribed as early as 1,500 B. C.
Parchment, also made from skins, was prepared by a different process than the tanning of leather. The word "parchment" comes from the name of the city of ancient Mysia—Pergamos or Pergamum—where its manufacture was originated and was carried on for centuries. Parchment, though known for centuries before the Christian Era, was used by the Greek and Roman writers to only a limited extent for a period of some centuries, owing to their continued preference for the papyrus production. The more general use of parchment was finally accelerated by necessity, and on this wise: Ptolemy Philadelphus (prompted perhaps by envy for the growing literary achievements of the kings of Pergamos and by jealousy for the supremacy of Alexandria) laid an embargo upon the exportation of the papyrus, then exclusively produced in Egypt. This restriction necessitated and accelerated the manufacture of parchment and thus stimulated its use, though papyrus continued to be, until after the beginning of the Christian Era, the more common and the cheaper though less durable material for receiving and perpetuating literature.
Parchment is not only one of the earliest—and the very best—but next to the baked tablets, the most durable material for all written productions. The employment of parchment to record and preserve literature spread from Pergamos throughout Europe and, because of its superior quality and its greater durability, came into the preëminence which it held until the invention of paper. Most of the existing manuscripts of a greater age than the sixth century are written on parchment. Indeed, its use for important and valuable documents, as embossed records and resolutions of respect, and diplomas and the like, has survived unto the present time.
Vellum is the designation for a finer quality of writing material made from calf skins or skins of antelopes. Some of the oldest, best, and clearest of the existing copies of the Bible—notably, the Vatican and the Sinaitic manuscripts—are written on vellum.
The skins of animals, however prepared to receive writing, were cut into strips and, at the first, were fastened together in a continuous roll—sometimes to the extent of a hundred feet or more in length. The last strip of the manuscript was attached to a reed or stick, called the umbilicus, around which, somewhat as a mounted map or a window-shade, the whole length was rolled. It is to be remembered that the first books, whether of parchment or papyrus, were not made up of leaves and pages but of rolls—were, literally, "volumes." These rolls were written usually on but one side of the material, in narrow, cross-wise columns. A volume was unrolled and re-rolled, as read; was "closed" by rolling it up around the umbilicus; and was "fastened" by tieing it with a string—was often "sealed" with wax. [In the book of Revelation (5:7-9) there is portrayed the breaking of the "seals" in order to read the contents of the book.] The Hebrew scriptures, used in the synagogue worship, were "books" of this form, as likewise was the "book" referred to in the fortieth psalm, "In the volume of the 'book' it is written of me."