The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-19

of beholding that precious MS, but it must be legible at least, seeing that
 every writer who deals at first hand
 with the antiquities of Rome refers to
 it as an authority. In the reconstruc-
 ton of the Forum, pursued with great
 interest now, the Einsiedlen MS,,' and
 the shattered Plan of Rome in the Capi-
 tol, furnish almost the sole means for
 reconciling dubious alusions made by
 classic historians and others. And
 scholars agree that it must have been written in the ninth century-more than
 a thousand years ago!
 What will be the state of our archives
 a thousand years hence, if they be not
 continually recopled-our poets histor-
 ians, or literature in general2 The
 printed paper rots even more quickly
 than written. On that problem indeed
 the famous manuscript will give no
 hint for doubtless it is inscribed on
 parchment-but we dc not speak with
 knowledge on the point. There are in-
 stances of the use of paper in Europe
 much earlier than the ninth century;
 the very first known is charter of
 Ravenna This, however, was made
 from papyrus, as were all the others,
 It is commonly asserted that the con quest of Egypt by the Arabs put a stop
 to the exportation of this article. That
 it actually stopped about that time is
 certain, but the connection of the two
 events does not appear at a glance, The Arabs did not discourage commerce quite the reverse. The Wilful burn ing of the library at Alexandria has
 long since been dismissed as q stupid
 fiction. They soon became literary nation, but one can hardly believe that they forbade the exportation of papyrus because they wanted all the stock for themselves; more probably the plant was already on the verge of extinction. When Egypt was thrown open once more it had vanished.
 Europe betook itself to parchment. That was very old invention. Herodotus tells that the Indians called a book parchment "pergamen, be- cause formerly, when papyrus was scarce, they used the skins of sheep and goats; even at the present day, ,' he adds, many of the barbarlans write on such skins" The word came from Pergamos, city famous in all times for it's library, until Julius Caesar car ried it to Egypt as a present for Cleopatra--to replace the books destroyed at Alexandria during the riots. Presently however, the demand of monks and lawyers became so urgent that the supply of sheep could not meet it; Dr. Thorold Rogers ingeniously pointed out how these animals multiply when law and orderprevail and vanish as rapidly in troublous times. The dark ages were not favorable to sheep breeding, Even in this island Henry I. was not able to obtain parchment enough for an illuminated edition of the Bible which he proposed.
 It became necessary to do something. First the monks ransacked their libra ries, and when they found an antique MS. on parchment, they cleaned it with pumice stone, erasing the contents, probably valuable, to inscribe their silly legends But this vile trick would not serve for any length of time. It appears to be certain that paper, in our modern sense of the word was an Oriental in- vention Arabic writers say that it was used to Samarcand before the ninth century-made from linen, or a mixture of linen and cotton Their account may be believed seeing the Arabs them selves adopted the manufacture. There are many MSS. in the Escurial of linen paper, some as early as the eleventh century. But Europe was slow to learn from the infidel The very first exam pie is in the Vienna Library, a small charter dated 1249; experts say that it is mostly cotton. Doubtless this was imported from the East Not till the century do we find examples of real paper made from linen beyond the Morsh kingdoms of Spain. Ger many claims the invention, and it is true that the earliest specimens survive
 herein the archives of the hospital at Kaufbeuern, dated 1918,
 But there is no evidence of the place where they were made, and when the Arabs had certainly bsen using linen paper for 300 years, it seems much more likely that the process was learned from them. But Germany introduced i t to Christendom, no doubt. The con ference may discuss thesa matters in it's | leisure time; but it's practical duties will be to find a paper and an ink that | will last. For the former why not go | back to papyrus If there is none in Egypt, there is vastly to much in thoe f Sudan. That famous "sudd" which | makes dam across the Nile-Whieh the | Government proposes to remove at | ,ost of millions when it can find the | 'ash-is mostly papyrus they say London Standard.