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PAPYRUS. 



The first manufactured paper of which we have any record, is the 

 celebrated papyrus, made of a species of reed growing in Egypt, on the 

 banks of the Nile. According to a passage in Lucan, which is likewise 

 corroborated by other authorities, this paper was first manufactured at 

 Memphis, but it has been a subject of great controversy to fix the exact 

 date of its invention. 



There is no doubt, however, but that it formed, at a very early period, 

 a considerable branch of commerce to the Egyptians, and was one of the 

 manufactures carried on at Alexandria. It obtained an increasingimport- 

 ance among the Romans as literature became more valued and diffused; 

 in the Augustan age it grew into most extensive demand. We are told, 

 that a popular revolt took place in the reign of Tiberius, from the scarcity 

 of this valuable article. The commerce in papyrus continued to flourish 

 for a long period, from the supply being unequal to the demand. Its 

 value is said to have been so great at the end of the third century, that 

 when Firmus, a rich and ambitious merchant, striving at empire, con- 

 quered for a brief period the city of Alexandria, he boasted that he had 

 seized as much paper and size as would support his whole army ! 



Papyrus was much used by St. Jerome, who wrote at the latter end of 

 the fourth century. As an article of much importance in commerce it was 

 made largely to contribute to the coffers of the Roman empire, and fiscal 

 Duties were laid upon it by successive rulers until they became oppressive. 

 These were abolished by Theodoric at the end of the fifth or the 

 beginning of the sixth century, this " gracious act,'' as Cassidorus calls 

 it, procured for him high praise. The exact period when this description 

 of paper fell into disuse, is equally a matter of doubt and controversy as 

 its introduction ; with some, it is said to be in the fifth, and others as 

 late as the eleventh century. The real date may be considered as in the 

 seventh century, when the Saracens became masters of Egypt ; and the 

 commerce between the Egyptians and Rome was interrupted. From 

 this period it is found that all public records are upon parchment 

 instead of papyrus. Pliny, in his Natural History, gives an accurate 

 description of the plant, and Bruce also describes the process of making 

 the papyrus, which was done in his own presence. The roots of the 

 plants are tortuous, the stem triangular, rising to the height of twenty 

 feet, tapering gradually towards the extremity, which is surmounted by 



