PAPYRUS ROLL, FROM A SPECIMEN IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
Before the invention of paper, the surfaces employed for writing upon were numerous. Surfaces of lead or other metal; tables covered with wax, skins of animals,—(parchment in fact)—all were used; but no one of these was ever so extensively employed as the Egyptian papyrus, whenever the latter material could be obtained. So soon, however, as the Saracens in the seventh century conquered Egypt, the exportation of papyrus was at an end; and writing surfaces became so scarce in Europe that many ancient documents of great value were erased in order to render them adapted for being written on once more. Thus perished many treasures of antiquity.
As the Saracens closed the avenue of supply for the ancient papyrus, so they compensated to Europe for this deprivation by discovering the manufacture of ordinary paper—at least paper made in the ordinary modern fashion,—though the material was cotton, not linen. This discovery was made some time anterior to the year 706 A.D., for at that period a manufactory of paper existed at Samarcand. In the eighth century the Saracens conquered Spain, and introduced into the Peninsula, amongst other arts, that of the manufacture of paper, which art was a long time finding its way into other parts of Europe,—in Italy not until the eleventh or twelfth century. The vast amount of papyrus which must have been employed in Italy, may be inferred from the number of rolls or scapi of this substance discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii; also from a perusal of many existing documents bearing directly or indirectly on this branch of commerce. Even so late as the commencement of the sixth century, Cassiodorus congratulated the world on the abolition, by King Theodoric, of the high duty on papyrus from Egypt; and he spoke in high flown terms of the great utility of the material. The latest papyrus roll known is of the twelfth century, containing a brief of Pope Paschal II., in favour of the Archiepiscopal see of Ravenna.
SYRIAN PAPYRUS WITHOUT FLOWERS.
