To this period may perhaps be attributed the Codex Vcronensis of the Old Latin (jospela ; but oiost of the purjtte M^S now extant are of later dat«. Tliose of the Creek Gosjtcls are al] attnbittai)1e to theflth cent, (tlie codirea known OA Evann. N, N», 2, +, and one recently broupht from Sinope to Paris, the latter and N» being written in gold letters, the others in silver, with gold only for the sacred name*). Other pun>le M.SS are the Coflices Palatinus and Saretianus (fith cent.), Vindo- bonensis and Hrixianus (<;th rent.) of the Old Latin Gospels, the Vienna (ienesis (oth cent.), which also has painted miniatures. the Gothic Gospels at Upsula (0th cent.), the .MeLz Gosnels and Psalter of St. Gennanus at F'aris (flth cent.), the Ziirich Greek Psalter (7th cent.), the Vulgate Gospels written by Godesciilc for Charlemagne (a.d. 781), the Hamilton Gospels, now in America, and two other copies of the Gospels at Paris (3th cent.). _ The last four, all written in the time of Charletn.igne (to which more of the same ami subsequent periods might be added), have letters of gold ; the earlitr MSS are in silver. Among special curiosities of ornamentation may be mentioned two leaves gilded all over, with lettering in blue, containitig the tables of Eusebiat] Canons, from a copy of the Greek Gos- pels, of the 6th cent., in the British Museuin, and two books of prayers written on black vellum in gold and silver letters, of the 16tb to loth cent«., at Vienna.
The sheet of vellum having been pre[)ared for use, it wa.s folded into quires, a process nliicli causes hair-side to face hair-side, ami flesh-side flesh-side throughout the volume. Quires are found of various sizes, eight le.avcs being the commonest numher. In Greek MSS the tlesli-side normally begins the quire in Latin MSS the hair-side. Lines
were ruled on the vellum with a blunt-pointed instrument, generally on the hair-side, making a furrow on that side and a rid"e on the flesh-side. After the use of vellum had liecome well estab- lished, the writing was generally arranged in two columns to tlie page, sometimes less, but very rarely more. Tlie earliest MSS, however, show a larger number, the Cod. Sinaiticus having four columns to the page, and the Codd. Vaticanus and Patiriensia (5lh cent.) three. It is probable that the use of narrowcolumns which this involves is a reminiscence of the narrow columns habitually found in i)apyri, from which these MSS were almost certainly cojued. A revival of this practice is occasionally lound in later MSS, as in Brit. Mus. Hoyal MS 1 D ii, con- taining part of the LXX, of which four quires are written with three columns to the page ; or the great Bibles containing Theodulfs recension of the Vulgate, which also have triple columns.
(/) Paper, the ultimate survivor in the competi- tion between the various vehicles of literature, is of much less importance for the history of writing than either papyrtis or vellum, on account of the lateness of its appearance in Europe and Western Asia. The date of its invention is unknown, but there seems to be no doubt that it was first manu- factured in China. About the middle of the 8th cent, it became known to the Arabs, perhaps as a result of their conquest of Sam.ircand, in 704, and factories were established in Baghdad and else- where. Specimens of their workmanship have been found in Egypt, dating from an early period in the Arab occupation of that country. To this paper the names charta (often with the epithet Dinwisccna) and papyrus were applied, since it served to take the place of the material formerly known by those names. From the Arabs the knowledge of paper passed, after a considerable lapse of time, to the Spaniards and Italians. The earliest known specimens are of the 12th cent., but it was only slowly that the new material made headway against the supremacy of vellum for literary purposes. Towards the end of tlio 14tli cent, it began to be used with some freedom in the book trade, and during the 15th cent, it was coming to supersede vellum for ordinary purposes, even before the invention of printing dealt the fatal blow to the older material. It was formerly supposed that the earliest ptipcr, introduced into Europe from the East, was made from cotton wool, and a distinction was drawn between cotton paper and linen ]japer. Microscoiiic examination, however, shows that this is a delusion, and that no such thing as paper made wholly ol cotton has ever existed. The name bomhyrina, which is used to describe the Oriental paper, has jirobably notliing to do with the material out of which it was made, but is a corruption of banihycinn, from liamliyce, in Syria, where it was manufactured. The materials out of which it was usually manu- factured were hemp or Hax, for which woollen cloth was subsequently substituted, and eventually (in the 14tli cent.) linen rtigs. Water -marks, which do not occur in Oriental paper, were inlro- duced by Eiirojiean manufacturers in the 13tli cent. Tlie earliest known siiucimen is on paper used in the district of Ancona in 12'.I3.
(m) The implements of wi-itinij have iiaturttlly dill'ered according to tlie various materials on wliich they had to be employed. A sharp, pointed metal instrument, known to the Greeks as (ttCXos, Lat. stilus, was u.sed for wriliiig on clay or wax tablets (cf. Job \'.)'-*, Jer 17')- On papyrus the reed (xiXa^s, calamus) wiis used (cf. 3 Jn " 6i4 /lAarat Kal KaXd/xoi'), and pos.sibIy also on leathei (cf. Ps 4,5', whore the LXX has xdNa^os ypaixnaTiut). MetJil jiens in the form of a reed or iiuill hitve been found in the'so-callcd Grave of Ari.-.lotle at Eretrio^