ABSTRACT
Papyrus is manufactured from the stem of a river plant that grew freely, and still grows sparsely, in the Nile. Papyrus was used in Egypt from the third millen-ium at the latest and there is a considerable body of papyrus rolls extant which date from about 2000 b.c. onwards. Parchment is made from the skins of sheep or goats while vellum is made from calf-skin. The parchment or vellum sheets were so arranged that the pages of each opening were of the same texture, both being either the fine “flesh” side or the “hair” side which was spotted with the roots of the hair. Paper has become the most ubiquitous and obtrusive of all the stuffs of daily life. The final quality of the paper will depend upon a number of combined characteristics of the basic materials, but no individual feature is more important than the fibres themselves.
