The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-11-22
Old Stationery.

1t il not strange ia u ese days of
cheap statIopery TO think of a time
when both parchment and papyrus
had become so rare and So eXorbi-
tantly expensive that both Greeks
and Romans were in the habit If
using a palimpsest, which was SIM
ply some old manuscript with the
former writing erased Thus count
less works of authors now celebrat-
ed, and whose every word is held
priceless in this nineteenth century.
were ruthlessly destroyed by their
contemporaries. Verify those proph-
cts lacked honor. Many were the
expedients resorted TO by the early
scribes for the supply of writing ma
terials. There was no scribbling
paper whereon to jot down trivial
memoranda or accounts, but the
heaps of broken pots and crockery
of all sorts, which are so abundant
in all Eastern towns, prove the first
suggestion for such china tables and
states as we now use, and bits of
smooth stone or tiles were constantly
used for this purpose, and remain to
this day. Fragments of ancient
tiles thus scrlbbled on (such tiles as
that whereon Ezekiel was command
ed TO portray the city of Jerusalem)
have been found in many places.
The island of Elephantine, on the
Nile. is said to have furnished more
than 100 specimens of these memo
randa, which are now in various mu-
seums. One OF these is a soldiers
leave of absence, scribbled on frag-
ment OF an old vase. How little
those scribes and accountants fore
saw the interest with which learned
descendants of the barbarians of
the isles would one dav treasure
their rough notes. Still quainter
were the writing materials of the
ancient Arabs, who before the time
of Mohammed, used to carve their
annals on the shoulder blades of
sheep; these ''sheep bone chronicles"
were strung together, and thus pre-
served. After a while sleeps bone
were replaced with sleeps skin, and
the manufacture of parchment was
brought to such perfection as to
place it among the refipements of
art. We hear of vellums that were
tinted yellog. others white; others
were dyed of rich purple, and the
writing thereon was ia golden ink, 9,
with gold borders and many colored
decorations. These precious mama
scripts were annointed with the oil
of cedar TO preserve them from
moths. We hear of one such in
which the name of Mohammed is
adorned with garlands of tulips and
carnations painted in vivid culors.
Still more precious was the silky pa
per of Persians, powdered with gold
and silver dust, whereon were paint
ed rare illuminations, while the book
was perfumed with altar of roses or
essence of sandalwood. OF the de-
Iaand for writing materials one may
form some faint notion from the
vast manuscript libraries of which
records have been preserved, as hav-
ing been collected by the Caliphs,
both of the east and west, the former
in Bagdad, the latter in AUdalusia,
where there were eighty great pub
lic Libraries, besides that vast one at
Cordova- We also hear of private
Libraries. such as that of Il physician
who declined an invitation from the
sultan of Bokhara because the car
riage of his books would have re-
quired 400 canlels. If all the physi-
ciabs of Bagdad were equally liter
airy the city could scarcely have con
tained their books, as We hear that
the medical brotherhood numbered
$50 licensed Practitioners.