PRIMITIVE BOOKS 



step in the mechanical art of book-making was 

 taken. 



Notwithstanding the wide diversity of materials of the 

 various books that we have examined, it appears there 

 is one interesting peculiarity in which they all agree; 

 without exception they are written upon one side of the 

 leaf whether that leaf be a papyrus roll, a slab of clay, 

 or a palm leaf with its various artificial modifications. 

 The cylinder of the Babylonian might, indeed, be named 

 as an exception, since here the entire available surface 

 is utilized. But as this unique form of book had no 

 successor, it may be disregarded for the present purpose. 

 As to all the others, it is obvious that half the available 

 writing surface of the material used is wasted. The ex- 

 travagance of this method must have been obvious to 

 the ancient scribes, particularly when it chanced that 

 papyrus and parchment were difficult to secure. The 

 fact that the backs of papyrus rolls were often used to 

 receive odd bits of writing, such as memoranda, personal 

 accounts, and the like, is in itself proof that the matter 

 received attention, but it is equally clear that the manner 

 of rolling a book left the outer surface too much exposed 

 to make its regular use feasible. Nor did the Egyptian 

 ever change his method in this regard. Perhaps the 

 abundance of papyrus plants, and the relative ease of 

 securing book material, withheld the stimulus that might 

 otherwise have led to invention. But, outside of Egypt, 

 this stimulus made itself felt with sufficient vigor. In 

 the time of the Seleucids, the inheritors of Alexander's 

 empire in western Asia found it very difficult to secure 

 papyrus, and were forced to the use of parchment which 



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