We have already dealt with the very first materials that were used to produce writing. Now, we will examine one by one the three materials that were massively employed in the West in the making of manuscripts. And in chronological order, these materials are papyrus, parchment and paper. We will naturally start with papyrus. We will see the plant it is made from, how its use, spread all across the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and how a leaf of papyrus is made. The papyrus leaf is made from the stem of the plant of the same name that in antiquity grew spontaneously in the Nile Delta in Egypt. Unfortunately, the original Egyptian variety of papyrus plant went extinct due to overexploitation and the variety that now grows there is a sicilian variety that was imported via France in the 19th century. Besides for making the leafs to right on them, papyrus was used for almost anything in ancient Egypt. Baskets, ropes, wakes, bandages, shoes, medicinal bombs and even boats were made of papyrus. To determine the starting point where papyrus was converted into a writting support by the Egyptians is not an easy task. The first papyrus was preserved has been dated around the year 3000 B.C. but it contains no writing. From Egypt, papyrus used as writing support passed on to Phoenicia in the second millennium B.C. and it appears that Phoenicians spread its used into their borderlands, as a result papyrus was already used in Assyria and Palestine during the seventh century B.C. The dates of the introduction of the papyrus in Greece has been highly controversial. The most optimistic scholars have hypothesized that it could have happened as soon as the 1500 B.C. and yet, it could be that papyrus was not known in Greece before the 700 B.C. To Rome, the most probable arrival date is during the third century B.C. And here, it became so successful as basic consumption item that when according to Pliny during the reign of emperor Tiberius, there was some scarcity due to a bad season, the euphs experience social unrest and the Emperor had to establish a rationing for its distribution. After the Islamic Conquest of Egypt, papyrus continued to be sold in Europe at least for some time until Caliph Abdul Malik forbid exports. In spite of the fact that there was papyrus manufacturing in Sicily, it became a luxury product and its use seized finally at some point during the 11th century and by then, the Egyptian production had also stopped. We know how the papyrus leaves were made, thanks to their description transmitted by Pliny. From the central part of the stem that has a triangular shape and can reach up to five meters in height, something is stripped or cut and they are set onto our table side by side in a way that they overlap a little. A second layer perpendicular to the previous one is then set on top so that sort of rectangular shaped, the leaves were formed once it was pressed and dried in the sun, was polished with an instrument made of ivory or [inaudible] or was beaten until the surface was as flat and soft as possible. However, this description provided Pliny, our rope probably accurate is too generic, and the modern craftsmen have adopted it in one way or another in order to get acceptable results. That leaves called "plagulae" in Latin were then pasted laterally by means of glue made with water flour and vinegar. The right border of each plagulae in a width of approximately one centimeter was overlapped on the following one, so that the suture line was well consolidate. This union between leafs was called kollesis. The result was a strip of around 20 leaves that was sold as a row. Not all papyri achieved the same quality. In general, papyrus quality decreased from [inaudible] to Roman times, despite the decent quality of papyrus sold during the fourth century. However, from that century on, fine product is only to be found occasionally. Given the frailty of the material extremely perishable especially in European climates, not very many Latin pieces on papyrus have survived to the present. We have found some fragments from the Roman era in modern Egypt, mostly in North Syracuse, the Nile Valley and El Fayum, many of which are now in the British Library in London, and we have of course, the papyri discovered in Herculanum to Dynaplus and [inaudible] the margins of the Euphrates River and some other crops in Palestine. From Medieval Era, we have in the words a few goddesses written on papyrus and a couple of those in charities. It seems papyrus was very appreciated for easy characters, maybe because any amendment made on papyrus was by far more visible than on parchment.
