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MANUSCRIPT

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 618 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MANUSCRIPT , a See also:

term applied to any document written by the human See also:hand (See also:Lat. manic scriptum) with the aid of See also:pen, See also:pencil or other See also:instrument which can be used with cursive facility, as distinguished from an inscription engraved with See also:chisel or graver, worked laboriously. By usage the word has come to be employed in a See also:special sense to indicate a written See also:work of the See also:ancient See also:world or of the See also:middle ages; collections of such " ancient See also:manuscripts " being highly prized and being stored for preservation in public See also:libraries. Down to the See also:time of the invention of See also:printing, and until the printed See also:book had driven it out of the See also:field, the manuscript was the vehicle for the conservation and dissemination of literature, and discharged all the functions of the See also:modern book. In the See also:present See also:article a description is given of the development of the ancient manuscript, particularly among the Greeks and See also:Romans, leading on to the See also:medieval manuscripts of See also:Europe, and bringing down the See also:history of the latter to the invention of printing; the history of the printed See also:volume is dealt with in the article BooK (q.v.). Materials.—The handbooks on See also:palaeography describe in full the different materials-which have been employed from remote time to receive See also:writing, and may be referred to for minuter details. To dispose, in the first See also:place, of the harder materials that have been put under requisition, we find metals both referred to by writers and actually represented by surviving examples. Thin leaves of See also:gold or See also:silver were recommended for the inscription of charms in particular. Leaden plates were in See also:common use for incantations; the material was cheap and was supposed to be durable. On such plates were scratched the dirae or See also:solemn devotions of See also:obnoxious persons to the infernal deities; many examples have survived. As an instance of the use of soft substance afterwards hardened may be cited the practice by the Babylonians and Assyrians of writing, or rather of puncturing, their See also:cuneiform characters on See also:clay tablets while moist, which were afterwards dried in the See also:heat of the See also:sun or baked in the See also:oven. Potsherds, or ostraka, were employed for all kinds of temporary purposes. Thousands of them have been found in See also:Egypt inscribed with tax receipts and ephemeral drafts and memoranda, See also:children's dictation lessons, &c.

Analogous to the clay documents of western See also:

Asia are the tablets coated with See also:wax in See also:vogue among the Greeks and Romans, offering a See also:surface not to be inscribed with the Een but to be scratched with the See also:sharp pointed stilus. These will be described more fully below. With them we class the wooden boards, generally whitened with a coating of paint or See also:composition and adapted for the pen, which were common in Egypt, and were specially used for educational purposes. Such boards were also employed for See also:official notices in See also:Athens in the 4th See also:century B.C. Of the more pliant, and therefore generally more convenient, substances there were many, such as See also:animal skins and See also:vegetable growths. Practically we might confine our See also:attention to three of them: See also:papyrus, See also:parchment or vellum, and See also:paper, the employment of which, each in turn, as a writing material became almost universal. But there are also others which must be mentioned. In a See also:primitive See also:state of society leaves of See also:plants and trees strong enough for the purpose might be taken as a ready-made material to receive writing. See also:Palm leaves are used for this purpose to the present See also:day in parts of See also:India; and the references in classical authors to leaves as See also:early writing material among the Greeks and Romans cannot be dismissed as entirely fanciful. The bark of trees, and particularly the inner bark of the See also:lime-See also:tree, .:IeXupa, tilia, was employed. The fact that the Latin word See also:liber, bark, eventually meant also a book, would be sufficient See also:proof that that material was once in common See also:literary use, even if it were not referred to by writers. See also:Linen, too, was a writing material among the early Romans, as it was also among the Etruscans, and as it had been to some extent among the Egyptians.

Skins of animals, tanned, have doubtless served as a writing material from the very earliest See also:

period of the use of letters. The Egyptians occasionally employed this material. Instances of the use of See also:leather in western Asia are recorded by ancient authors, and from See also:Herodotus we learn that the Ionian Greeks applied to the rolls of the later-imported papyrus the See also:title &4.BEpai, skins, by which they had designated their writing material of leather. The See also:Jews, also, to the present day hold to the ancient Eastern See also:custom and inscribe thelaw upon skin rolls. But generally these materials were superseded in the old world by the famous See also:Egyptian writing material manufactured from the papyrus plant, which gradually passed beyond the boundaries of its native See also:land and was imported at a remote period into other countries. Into See also:Greece and into See also:Rome it was introduced at so early a time that practically it was the vehicle for classical literature throughout its . course. A description of the manufacture and use of this material will be found under PAPYRUS. Here it need only be noted that papyrus is associated in See also:Greek and See also:Roman literature with the See also:roll See also:form of the ancient manuscript, as will be more fully explained below, and that it was the supersession of this material by parchment or vellum which led to the See also:change of shape to the book form.' The introduction of the new material, parchment or vellum, was not a revival of the use of animal skins as followed by the old world. The skins were now not tanned into leather, but were prepared by a new See also:process to provide a material, thin, strong, flexible, and smooth of surface on both faces. This improved process was the See also:secret of the success of the new material in ousting the time-honoured papyrus from its high position. The common See also:story, as told by See also:Pliny, that See also:Eumenes II. of See also:Pergamum (197–158 B.C.), seeking to extend the library of his See also:capital, was opposed by the See also:jealousy of the See also:Ptolemies, who forbade the export of papyrus, hoping thus to check the growth of a See also:rival library, and that he was thus compelled to have recourse to skins as a writing material, at all events points to Pergamum as the See also:chief centre of See also:trade in the material, prep- /.n v$, charta pergamena. The old terms &4:O See also:pal, membranae, applied originally to the older leather, were transferred to the newly improved substance.

In describing See also:

MSS. written on this material, by common consent the term parchment has in modern times given place to that of vellum, properly applicable only to calfskin, but now generally used in reference to a medieval skin-book of any See also:kind. Parchment is a title now usually reserved for the hard sheepskin or other skin material on which See also:law deeds are engrossed.

End of Article: MANUSCRIPT

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