BOOK XIII. XXVI. 82-xxvii. 85 



XXVI. The common kind of paste for papcr is made Pastefor 

 of fine flour of tlie best quality mixed with boihng ^pJ!^ 

 water, with a very small sprinkle of vinegar ; for car- 

 penter's paste and gum make too brittle a compound. 



But a more careful process is to strain the crumb of 

 leavened bread in boiHng water ; this method requires 

 the smallest amount of paste at the seams, and pro- 

 duces a paper softer than even linen. But all the paste 

 used ought to be exactly a day old — not more nor yet 

 less. Afterwards the paper is beaten thin with a 

 mallet and run over with a layer of paste, and then 

 again has its creases removed by pressure and is 

 flattened out with the mallet. This process may 

 enable records to last a long time ; at the house of 

 the poet and most distinguished citizen Pomponius 

 Secundus I have seen documents in the hand of 

 Tiberius and Gaias Gracchus written nearly two 

 hundred years ago ; while as for autographs of Cicero, 

 of his late Majesty Augustus, and of Virgil, we see 

 them constantly. 



XXVII. There are important instances forthcoming History oj 

 that make against the opinion of Marcus Varro in ^^^ 

 regard to the history of paper. Cassius Hemina, a 

 historian of great antiquity, has stated in his Annals, 



Book IV, that the secretary Gnaeus Terentius, when 

 digging over his land on the Janiculan, turned up a 

 cofFer that had contained the body of Numa, who was 

 king at Rome, and that in the same coffer were found 

 some books of his — this was in the consulship of Pubhus 18I b.o. 

 CorneHus Cethegus, son of Lucius, and of Marcus 

 Baebius Tamphilus, son of Quintus, dating 535 years 

 after the accession of Numa ; and the historian says 

 that the books were made of paper, which makes the 

 matter still more remarkable, because of their having 



149 



