Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/251

 P A R P A R 233 uncertain width, perhaps from 4f to 5 inches. And lastly there was the common packing-paper, the charta emporctica, of 6 digiti or 4| inches. Isidore (Etymol., vi. 10) mentions yet another kind, the Corneliana, first made under C. Cornelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, which, however, may have /been the same as the amphi- theatrica or Fanniana. The name of the man who had incurred the anger of Augustus may have been suppressed by the same influence that expunged the episode of Gallus from the Fourth Georgia (Birt, Antik. Euchivescn, p. 250). In the reign of the emperor Claudius also another kind was introduced and entitled Claudia. It had been found by experience that the charta Augusta was, from its fineness and porous nature, ill suited for literary use ; it was accordingly reserved for correspondence only, and for other purposes was replaced by the new paper. The charta Claudia was made from a composition of the first and second qualities, the Augusta, and the Lima, a layer of the former being backed with one of the latter ; and the sheet was increased to nearly a foot in width. The largest of all, however, was the macrocollon, probably of good quality and equal to the hieratic, and a cubit or nearly 18 inches wide. It was used by Cicero (Epp. ad Attic., xiii. 25 ; xvi. 3). The width, however, proved incon venient, and the broad sheet was liable to injury by tearing. An interesting question arises as to the accuracy of the different measurements given by Pliny. His figures regarding the width of the different kinds of papyri have generally been understood to concern the width (or height) of the rolls, as distinguished from their length. It has, however, been observed that in practice the width of extant rolls does not tally in any satisfactory degree with Pliny s measurements ; and a more plausible explanation has been lately offered (Birt, Antik. Buchwesen, pp. 251 sq.) that the breadth (not height) of the individual sheets of which the rolls aw; composed is referred to. The first sheet of a roll was named irpwTOKoov ; the last, t&amp;lt;rx&quot;-TOKoiov. Under the Romans, the former bore the name of the comes largitionum, who had control of the manufacture, with the date and name of place. It was the practice to cut away the portion thus marked ; but in case of legal documents this mutilation was forbidden by the laws of Justinian. On the Arab conquest of Egypt in the 7th century, the manufacture was con tinued, with the substitution of Arabic in marking the protocol. An instance of one of these Arab signatures is preserved in a bull of Pope John VIII. of the year 876. Varro s statement, repeated by Pliny, that papyrus was first made in Alexander s time, should probably be taken to mean that its manufacture, which till then had been a Government monopoly, was relieved from all restrictions. It is not probable, however, that it was ever manufactured from the native plant anywhere but in Egypt. At Rome there was certainly some kind of industry in papyrus, the charta Fanniana, already referred to, being an instance in illustration. But it seems probable that this industry was con fined to the re-making of material imported into Italy, as in the case of the charta Claudia. This second manufacture, however, is thought to have been detrimental to the papyrus, as it would then have been in a dried condition requiring artificial aids, such as a more liberal use of gum or paste, in the process. The more brittle condition of the Latin papyri found at Herculaneum has been instanced as the evil result of this re-making of the material. According to Strabo the Romans obtained the papyrus plant from Lake Trasimene and other lakes of Etruria, but this statement is unsupported by any other authority and appears to have been made in error. At a later period, however, a papyrus was cultivated in Sicily, which has been identified by Parlatore with the Syrian variety (Cyperus syriacus), far exceeding in height the Egyptian plant, and having a more drooping head. It grew in the east and south of the island, where it was probably introduced during the Arab occupation. It was seen in the 10th century, by the Arab traveller Ibn-Haukal, in the neighbourhood of Palermo, where it throve luxuriantly in the pools of the Papireto, a stream to which it lent its name. From it paper was made for the sultan s use. But in the 13th century it began to fail, and in 1591 the drying up of the Papireto caused the extinction of the plant in that district. It is still to be seen at Syracuse, but it was probably transplanted thither at a later time, and reared only as a curiosity, as there is no notice of it to be found previous to 1674. It is with this Syracusan plant that some attempts have been made in recent years to manufacture a writing material similar to ancient papyrus. Even after the introduction of vellum, papyrus still continued in use among the Romans, and was not entirely superseded until a late date. It ceased, however, to be used for books sooner than for documents. In the 5th century St Augustine apologizes for sending a letter written on vellum instead of the more usual substance, papyrus (Ep. xv. ); and Cassiodorus (Varr., xi. 38), writing in the 6th century, indulges in a high-flown panegyric on the plant and its value, and refers to the abolition of the tax on paper by the emperor Theodoric. Of mediaeval Greek papyri a very few remains containing Biblical or patristic matter have survived, and one or two fragments of Graeco-Latin glossaries have been published. Of Greek documents, apart from monastic deeds discovered in Egypt, there are two which are well known, viz., the fragmentary epistle of Constantine V. to Pepin le Bref, of 753 or 756, now preserved at Paris, and the papyrus containing the subscriptions to the council of Constantinople of 680, at Vienna. Mediseval Latin MSS. on papyrus in book form are still extant in different libraries of Europe, viz. : the Homilies of St Avitus, of the 6th century, at Paris ; Sermons and Epistles of St Augustine, of the 6th or 7th century, at Paris and Geneva ; works of Hilary, of the 6th century, at Vienna; fragments of the Digests, of the 6th century, at Pommersfeld ; the Antiquities of Josephus, of the 7th century, at Milan ; Isidore, De Contemptu Mundi, of the 7th century, at St Gall ; and the Register of the Church of Ravenna, of the 10th cen tury, at Munich. Of Latin documents on papyrus (tomus was the technical word of the Middle Ages to designate such a document), the first to be mentioned are the fragments of two imperial rescripts addressed to an official in Egypt in the 5th century. The employment of this material in Italy for legal purposes is sufficiently illustrated by the large number of documents which were preserved at Ravenna, and date from the 5th to the 10th century. In the papal chancery too it was used at an early date, evidence of its presence there being found in the biography of Gregory I. But of the extant papal deeds the earliest to which an authentic date can be attached is a bull of Stephen III. of the year 757, while the latest appears to be one of 1004. There is evidence to show that in the 10th century papyrus was used, to the exclusion of other materials, in papal deeds. In France it was a common writing substance in the 6th century (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., v. 5). Of the Merovingian period there are still extant several papyrus deeds, the earliest of the year 625, the latest of 692. Under Charlemagne and his successors it was not used. By the 12th century the manufacture of papyrus had entirely ceased, as appears from a note by Eustathius in his commentary on the Odyssey, xxi. 390. See Melch. Guilandino s commentary on the chapters of Pliny relating to papyrus, Papyrus, hoc est Commentaries, &c., Venice, 1572; Jlontfaucon, &quot;Dis sertation sur la plants appellee Papyrus,&quot; in the Afdmoires de r Academic des Inscriptions, 1729, pp. 592-608; T. C. Tychsen, &quot;DeChartas Papyracea? in Euvopa per medium sevum usu,&quot; in the Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Qottin^ensis, 1820, pp. 141-208; Dureau de la Malle, &quot; Memoire sur le Papyrus,&quot; in the Mem. de rinslitut, 1851, pp. 140-183; Ph. Parlatore, &quot; Me moire sur le Papyrus des anciens,&quot; &amp;lt;fec., in the Mem. al Acad. des Sci., 1854, pp. 46!) 502; Bluinner, Tech- nologie vnd TerminoJogie der Gewerbe vnd Kiinste dci Griechen mid Romem, Leipsic, 1875, i. pp. 308-327 ; Ces. Paoli, Del Papiro, Horence, 1878. See also W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, Leipsic, 1875. pp. 80-91 ; and T. Birt, Das unlike Buchwesen, Berlin, 1882, pp. 223-273. (E. M. T.) PARA, or SANTA MAEIA DE BELEM DO GEAO PARA, one of the most flourishing cities of Brazil, capital of the province of Par4 or Grao Para, lies on a point of land with sandy porous soil at the junction of the Guamd with the Rio Pard or eastern arm of the Amazons, about 75 miles from the sea. The main river is about 20 miles wide opposite the town, but is broken by numerous islands. Par4 is regularly built, well-paved, and well-lighted. The houses, which seldom exceed two or three stories in height, are usually substantial structures of stone ; and a general brightness of aspect is produced by red-tiled roofs and white, yellow, or even pink and blue coloured walls relieved by dense tropical foliage. The Estrada das Mon- gubeiras, running about a mile from the river to Largo da Polvora in the east end of the city, has long been famous for its magnificent cotton trees (Bonibax Mongtiba, B. Ceibci) ; but the grand old trees are dying out, and the finest avenue in Para is now the Estrada de Sao Jose, with its colonnade of tall &quot; royal palms &quot; (Oreodoxa regia). In the outskirts of the city the wealthy merchants have villas with very extensive grounds, and a little way beyond these begins the dense swamp-forest. Par& has a wonder fully pleasant and healthy climate, with a temperature extremely equable throughout the year. &quot; The mornings are cool. From 10 till 2 the heat increases rapidly, com monly reaching 90 or 91. A little later great black clouds appear in the east and spread quickly over the sky ; the temperature falls suddenly, the wind blows in varying gusts, the rain pours down, and ere one is aware the sun leaps out. Sometimes the first shower is followed by a second or even a third. By sunset the ground is dry.&quot; This is the rule all the year round ; only in the height of the dry season a week may pass without any showers. The Brazilians have a proverb, &quot; Who came to Para was glad to stay ; who drank assai went never away. &quot; The XVIIT. 30