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Untitled Article
written on paper , and , therefore , of no great antiquity . " See Marsh ' s Michaelis , Vol . II . pp . 440—444 . In commenting on this curious critique , it m *» t be admitted to be certain enough ; that rockets are not made of vellum ; for cases made of that or any other animal substance would fry and frizzle in the act of discharging ; whilst paper , made from any vegetable substance , would be free from those defects ,, ajid would supply a proper material for rocket-cases : so that there is no doubt but that the MSS . in question were not written on vellum , but on some
kind of paper , as Dr . Marsh argues . The premises , therefore , are sound enough ; but surely the very reverse must be said of the marvellous deduction from those premises to the effect that because those MSS . were written on paper they could not be of uny great antiquity / When it is considered that that deduction hath been made by learned men in serious argument upon an important subject , the error is absolutely inexplicable . But be that as it may , there cannot be any difficulty in shewing that paper
was in use for writing upon , not merely in the days of the Apostles and Evangelists , but for many centuries before they were in existence , and the facts detailed by them had occurred . Paul , in his Second Epistle to Timothy , ch . iv . 13 , speaks of " the books , especially the parchments ; " from which it may be inferred , that the « books * ' he alluded to were not of parchment , but paper . Varro , who died 28 years before Christ , at the age of 88 , said , as quoted by Pliny , that the art of making paper was invented after the foundation of Alexandria , which was before Christ 333 years ; and was made from an
aquatic plant , produced in the lower part of Egypt : and that it was not until Ptolemy , the King of Egypt , prohibited the exportation of paper , that vellum or parchment was made use of as a substitute for it . There was , it is said , a jealous rivalry between Ptolemy and Eumenes , King of Pergamus , respecting their libraries , and when the former interdicted the exportation of paper , the latter had recourse to the skins of animals ; and hence , accord- * ing to Varro , the invention of parchment or vellum .
Now , Varro was quite right in his supposition as to the material from which was made the ancient Egyptian paper ; and from the Greek name of the aquatic plant which he alludes to , viz . namtw , papyrus , is our word paper derived ; but he was wrong in attributing the first invention of either paper , or parchment , or vellum , subsequently to the foundation of Alexandria , for each was in use for writing upon long before , as will presently bq shewn . Varro was also wrong in ascribing the first invention of parchment or vellum to Eumenes , the King of Pergamus ; for Eumenes succeeded his uncle only 263 years before Christ , although certainly the Latin name of
parchment , pergamena 9 from Pergamos , sanctions the opinion , that if not first manufactured in Pergamus , yet that a very superior article of tfre kind was first produced there : and , indeed , Eumenes may probably be justly considered an inventor , although not the first inventor of parchment , Pliny himself , ia order to shew that the use of paper was much morq ancient than Varro ' s account , not less , in fact , than 2 $ Q 0 years ago , relies upon a curious story , told b y an historian of the narn $ of Heminja , to the . effect that a coffin had been found , ( about J 81 years before Christ , ) in which
was the bocly of King Numa , together with certain paper books , containing the philosophy of Pythagoras ; which books had lain in the coffin in an imperishable state for 5 $ 5 years ! Tp t * sure , Htiinipa ' * ta | e is rather
Untitled Article
Antiquity ef Paper A 1 SX 495
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 495, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/23/
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