Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21
PAPER OF THE ANCIENTs
MORE DURABLE THAN THAT |
FROM MODERN MILLS.
Manuscripts Legible After Lapse
Of Centuries-old Ink
Best.
rom the New York Evening Post.

fom Tue New 1oTh ENtHiHE Ipsi.
The pope at one time invited chemists
and librarians from every part of Europe
to meet at Einsiedlen Abbey, in Switzer-
land, and talk about paper and ink. To the
uninitiated it may have seemed tremendous
machinery for such an object, but in fact
the matter is very grave. The records of
this generation will disappear in a time
which can be estimated unless the ma
terials for writing be improved, and the
time is not distant, either. 1t is stated that
the pope submitted a number of documents
from the archives of the Vatican which are
scarcely decipherable, though dated in the
present century. Perhaps things are worse
in Italy than elsewhere even, for it was an
incident at Rome which first called public
attention to the evil; those concerned had
long been aware of it, of course. Certain
returns were demanded in parliament, re-
ferring to the condition of the army in 1870.
When the war office produced them they
We're illegible. In twenty-five years or so
the ink had faded and the paper decom-
posed. This was an extreme case, as it
| turned out after inquiry, but all the records
had deteriorated in an alarming manner.
Age of the Earth.
In some countries, perhaps, greater care
has been used in selecting the quality of
paper and ink, but it is admitted that the
best will not endure like the writings of
age is scientific in nothing. AS Sir Archi-
bald Geikie reminded us the other day it
confidently estimates the age of the solid
| armament whereon we live. One faction,
indeed, puts it at 400, 900 years, and an
other at a score of millions only, but both
are equally confident. They reach their
conclusions by weighing the sun and COM
putting its heat in past ages, reckoning the
friction of the tides and the effect thereof
from the beginning of things, and so on.
But the men who can work out these awful
problems-not to speak of wireless teleg-
raphy and the Roentgen rays-cannot
make paper equal to that of 5000 years
ago. nor ink such as was used in the dark
ages.
Superiority of the Ancient Paper
To the unlearned it seems very curious
Paper manufacturers try every substance
they can hear of which makes pulp In
earlier times they were content with one,
the papyrus; when that supply failed, with
rags. Herewith, by the simplest process,
they produced material with which our
best cannot compare, though we search the
universe for aid. But the case of ink is
still more remarkable There are no secrets
or composition in the ancient article so far
as We have heard. Oak trees still bear
gals in abundance. and acids have not
changed their nature.
1t may be concluded that the men of old
were more careful in the preparation when
each made his own ink: or they had simple
secrets which our manufacturers lack pa
thence to discover-if they trouble about it.
The brightness and the durability of paint
erS' colorS are lost in the same way Sir
Joshua Reynolds pictures little more than
a hundred years old, cannot be made to
last much longer, unless reprinted; those
masterpieces at st. Petersburg which have
not been touched are covered with great
brown lines quarter of an inch wide as
by network. But the visitor to Bruges
sees Meanings works, of the fifteenth CEN
fury, as clear and as bright absolutely as
when they left the easel.
The Einsiedlen MS.
The savants found notable specimen of
the antique skill al Einsiedlen-one which
points the moral with peculiar force. An
individual whose name, nationality occu-
patton and even date are not recorded
once Travelled to Rome. He had the en-
thusiasm of born archaeologist and an
INFINITE capacity for taking pains. And so
the good man employed himself in measur-
ing and describing the edifices of the city
above all, in copying the Inscriptions And
thus he left an inestimable register of facts
for the buildings, though already ruined of
course, might be called perfect by compari-
son with their state at the present time.
We never had the qualification of beholdng
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 recon-
struction of the Forum, pursued with great
interest now. the Einsiedlen MS and
the shattered plan of Rome in the capitol
furnish almost the sole means for reconcil-
ing dubious illusions made by classic his
torianS and others. And scholars agree
that it must have been written in the ninth
centry-more than thousand years ago!