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One of the most important discoveries made by man is the paper. Today, paper is so common that we do not even perceive its real value, but till getting to it, the human kind
had to wait.
People have always felt the necessity of an efficient writing support to fix and preserve their knowledge, feelings, beliefs and, this way, to prevail over the unavoidable passing of the time. But, until the Arabs brought the method of paper making, invented by the Chinese, to the Middle East and Europe, people had to write on papyri.
The word "paper" comes from papyrus and this material was used by Egyptians 4,000 years ago. Even if the papyrus differs mechanically from proper paper, chemically it has the same composition: cellulose. For achieving the papyrus, the ancient Egyptians used a tall, monocot aquatic plant, Cyperus papyrus, of the sedge family, native to the Nile valley. The Egyptian subspecies, C. papyrus hadidii, thought to be common in ancient times, now occurs only in several sites. Other subspecies grow in Ethiopia, Sicily and southern Italy.
The plant has an eatable rhizome, but the stems were used for making the "Egyptian paper". The stem was cut in narrow stripes which were overlapped and crossed in right angles, then they were beaten with a hammer until the surface was flattened and subsequently the surface was smoothed using an ivory tool, with pumice stone or agate. To protect the papyrus against humidity and insect attack, the product was soaked in cedar oil.
Egypt, through Alexandria, delivered papyri to the whole ancient world. Many imperial Greek and Roman diplomas were written on papyri. Until the middle of the 11th century, the papal bulls were sent written on papyri. The diplomas of the Merovingian Frank kings, during the 8th century, were written on papyri.
The papyrus was usually rolled in scrolls called volumen. Scrolls made in Egypt had over 14 m (46 ft) in length, with a width of 20-25 cm (0.6-0.8 ft). During the Merovingian epoch, the papyri were cut into files for making books. Between the papyri pages, leather files were intercalated to confer more consistence and solidity to the book.
Because the papyrus was an Egyptian monopoly (including in the 10th century BC), each file was stamped. When Egyptian papyri factories ceased their activities (being replaced by paper mills), the papyrus continued to be made in Sicily, but, judging on the quality of the papal bulls, it was of a lower quality.
The Latin words for papyrus, like "charta" and "tomus" were later applied to paper. By the 16th century, the papyrus was no longer used, even if rare later documents were written on papyrus.
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