Forty Centuries of Ink: Or, A chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curiosa together with some evidence respecting the evanescent character of most inks of to-day and an epitome of chemico-legal ink.Carvalho, David Nunes
History
Forty Centuries of Ink: Or, A chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curiosa together with some evidence respecting the evanescent character of most inks of to-day and an epitome of chemico-legal ink.
Carvalho, David Nunes
Ink
Mr. Knight also says that the Greek name papuros,
mentioned by Theophrastus, a contemporary of Aristotle
and Alexander, was probably the Egyptian name
of the reed with a Greek termination. It was also
called biblos by Homer and Herodotus, whence our
term bible. The term volumen, a scroll, indicates the
early form of a book of bark, papyrus, skin, or parchment,
as the term liber (Latin, a book, or the inner
bark of a tree) does the use of the bark itself. Hence
also our terms library and librarian. "Book" is
also derived from the Danish word bog, the bark of
the beech.
Pliny quoting Varro, who preceded him some two
centuries, asserts that before the invention of papyrus,
the large leaves of certain plants were prepared so
that they could be written upon. Hence originates
our term "leaves" of a book which in the Latin form
folium has also given us the modern term folio.
When, however, the reed pen and the pencil brush
and their kindred substances denominated colored
liquids or inks, came into vogue, some material on
which characters could be inscribed and preserved in
the shape of continuous rolls for record and other
uses became necessary. The papyrus plant seems to
have met every requirement. It is a noteworthy fact
that all information which can be derived from any
source, specifically calls attention to papyrus and
sometimes the inner barks of trees as being coexistent
with pen and ink.
Varro has been credited with many statements
which in the light of investigation and discovery are
proved to be incorrect. One of these is in effect
that the use of papyrus was an incident pertaining to
the expeditions of Alexander the Great. This assertion
is not only contradicted by Pliny, the historian,
who calls attention to "books of papyrus found in the
tomb of Numa " (Numa Pompilius, the second king of
Rome, B. C. 716-672,) but even at this late day many
monuments of ancient papyri are still extant and belonging
to periods more than a thousand years before
Alexander's time.
The real facts in respect to this matter are, that
the introduction of the use of papyrus to nations beyond
the limits of Egypt was an event that did not
take place until after the reign of the first Macedonian
sovereign of Egypt, Ptolemy Lagus (B. C. 323) when,
in return for Greek literature, Egypt gave back her
papyrus. Before this epoch the Greeks had been in
the habit of employing such materials as linen, wax,
bark and leaves for ordinary writing purposes, while
their public records were inscribed on stone, brass,
lead or other metals.
Papyrus as then introduced into those western
countries was the only substance for a long period
employed for literary purposes.
Parchment and vellum, which were adopted there
as writing materials about two centuries later, were
too costly to be used so long as papyrus was within
reach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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