THE REIGN OF THE MANUSCRIPT BY PERRY WAYLAND SINKS, S.T.D. _Author of_ "_Popular Amusements and the Christian Life_," "_Jesus and the Children_," "_About Money_," "_Whittlers of the Word of God_," "_In the Refiner's Fire_" [Illustration] _And the books, especially the parchments._ --_II. Timothy 4:13_ BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY RICHARD G. BADGER All Rights Reserved Made in the United States of America The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. TO OUR BELOVED SONS AND DAUGHTERS OUR EARNEST CARE AND CROWN OF JOY AN APPRECIATION I have examined the manuscript of your book with care. The conception seems to me to be admirable, and new in form of presentation. There is a great deal of valuable material for which one would search a long time and then not find it in the orderly and compact form which you have given it. It seems to me that Sunday school teachers would welcome it especially, and leaders of teacher-training classes would desire to use it as an auxiliary text book. I trust it will be widely read. ERNEST BOURNER ALLEN _The Washington Street Congregational Church._ _Toledo, 1917_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I THE EPOCHAL INVENTION OF PRINTING 11 II THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRINTING PRESS 16 III THE PERIOD OF MANUSCRIPT LITERATURE 19 IV THE AMPLITUDE OF THE BIBLE IN MANUSCRIPT 33 V THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN LITERATURE 40 VI MATERIALS EMBODYING LITERATURE 46 VII VARIETIES AND CHANCES IN THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS 55 VIII PARCHMENT AND VELLUM 59 IX PAPYRUS 66 X PAPER AND ITS MANUFACTURE 72 XI OTHER MATERIALS OF LITERATURE 78 XII INKS 83 XIII IMPLEMENTS OF WRITING 87 XIV THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PALÆOGRAPHY 89 1 THE HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING 92 2 THE CUNEIFORM WRITING 99 3 THE ALPHABETIC WRITING 104 4 THE CLASSIC WRITING 112 5 THE TWO GREAT STAGES OF CLASSIC WRITING 113 6 THE ANGLO-SAXON WRITING 115 7 PALÆOGRAPHY AND THE DATE OF LITERARY PRODUCTIONS 117 XV MECHANICAL AND ARTIFICIAL DEVICES OF LITERATURE 120 XVI SOURCES OF THE BOOK-MAKING INDUSTRY 127 XVII THE LITERARY PREËMINENCE OF ALEXANDRIA 133