The charta Claudia was made from a composition of the first and
second qualities, the Augusta and the Livia, 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 in. wide. It was used by Cicero (Ep. ad
Attic, xiii. 25; xvi. 3). The width, however, proved inconvenient,
and the broad sheet was liable to injury by tearing.
An examination of extant papyri has had the result of proving that sheets of large size, measuring about 12 in., were sometimes used. A large class of examples run to 10 in., others to 8 in., while the smaller sizes range from 4 to 6 in.
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 offered (Birt, Antik. Buchwesen, pp. 251 seq.) that the breadth (not height) of the individual sheets of which the rolls are composed is referred to.
The first sheet of a roll was named πρωτόκολλον; the last, ἐσχατοκόλλιον. 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 continued, and the protocols were marked at first, as it appears, with inscriptions in both Greek and Arabic, and later in the latter language alone. There are several examples extant, some being in the British Museum, ranging between the years 670 and 715 (see facsimiles in C. H. Becker, Papyri Schott-Reinhardt, i. (Heidelberg, 1906); and cf. “Arabische Papyri des Aphroditofundes,” in Zeitsch. für Assyriologie, XX. (1906), 68–104. The Arab inscriptions are accompanied by curious scrawls on each side, which may be imitated from words used in the Latin inscriptions of the Roman period.
Papyrus was cultivated and manufactured for writing material by the Arabs in Egypt down to the time when the growing industry of paper in the 8th and 9th centuries rendered it no longer a necessity (see Paper). It seems to have entirely given place to paper in the 10th century. 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 confined 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.
As to cultivation of the plant in Europe, 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 ancient authority. 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 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 modern times to manufacture a writing material similar to ancient papyrus.
Even after the introduction of vellum as the ordinary vehicle for literature papyrus still continued to some extent in use outside Egypt, 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. Of medieval literary Greek papyri very few relics have survived, but of documents coming down to the 8th and 9th centuries an increasing number is being brought to light among the discoveries in Egypt.
Medieval 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 century, at Munich. The employment of this material in Italy for legal purposes is sufficiently illustrated by the large number of documents in Latin which were preserved at Ravenna, and date from the 5th to the 10th century. In the papal chancery 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 Adrian I. of the year 788, while the latest appears to be one of 1022. 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.
Authorities.—Melch. Guilandino's commentary on the chapters of Pliny relating to papyrus. Papyrus, hoc est commentarius, &c. (Venice, 1572); Montfaucon, “Dissertation sur la plante appellée Papyrus,” in the Mémoires de l’académie des inscriptions (1729), pp. 592–608; T. C. Tychsen, “De chartae papyraceae in Europa per medium aevum usu,” in the Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gottingensis (1820), pp. 141–208; Dureau de la Malle, “Mémoire sur le papyrus,” in the Mém. de l’institut (1851), pp. 140–183; P. Parlatore, “Mémoire sur le papyrus des anciens,” in the Mém. à l’acad. des sciences (1854), pp. 469–502; Blumner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern, i. 308–327 (Leipzig, 1875); C. Paoli, Del Papiro (Florence, 1878); G. Cosentino, “La Carta di papiro,” in Archivio storico siciliano (1889), pp. 134–164. See also W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1896); T. Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Berlin, 1882); F. G. Kenyon, The Palaeography of Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1899); and W. Schubart, Das Buch bei den Griechen und Römern (Berlin, 1907). (E. M. T.)
PAR (Lat. par, equal), technically a commercial and banking
term. When stocks, shares, &c., are purchasable at the price
originally paid for them or at their nominal or face value they
are said to be at par. When the purchase price is higher than the
face value, they are above par, or at a premium; when below face
value, they are below par, or at a discount. Par of exchange is
the amount of money in the currency of one country which is
equivalent to the same amount in the terms of another, both
currencies being of the same metal and of a fixed standard of
weight and purity. (See Exchange.)
PARÁ, or Grão Pará, a northern state of Brazil, bounded N. by the three Guianas and the Atlantic, E. by the Atlantic and the states of Maranhao and Goyaz, S. by Goyaz and Matto Grosso and W. by Amazonas. It is the third largest state of the republic, having an area of 443,922 sq. m.; pop. (1890), 328,455, (1900), 445,356. The Amazon valley has its outlet to the ocean through the central part of the state, the outlet, or neck, being
comparatively narrow and the territory on both sides rising to the level of the ancient plateau that covered this part of the continent. In the north is the Guiana plateau, sometimes called Brazilian Guiana, which is “blanketed” and made semiarid by the mountain ranges on the Brazil-Guiana frontier. In the south the country rises in forested terraces and is broken by escarpments caused by the erosion of the northern slope of the
great central plateau of Brazil. With the exception of the
