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Bicolor Membrana
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
ALL classical palaeographers are familiar with Persius' roster of writing materials:
Now we take the book to hand, and the two-coloured parchment purged of hair, and papyrus, and a knotty reed.
Of the items mentioned, only ‘two-coloured parchment’ presents any difficulty.I hope in this article to present at least a possible solution to this problem.
An obvious supposition would be that Persius is merely referring to the natural differences in colour between the two sides of a piece of parchment.
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References
page 339 note 1 Persius, 3.10 f.(ed.Ramsay): ‘lam liber et positis bicolor membrana capillis / inque manus chartae nodosaque venit harundo.’
page 339 note 2 Gardthausen, V., Griechische Palaeographie (2 vols.; znd edn.; Leipzig, 1911–1913),Google Scholar Vol.I (= Das Buchwesen int Altertum und im byzantinischen Mittelalter), p.95: ‘Die Haarseite des Pergaments bleibt immer etwas gelber und rauher…’ Cf.Hans Foerster, Abriβ der lateinischen Paläographie (2nd edn.rev.; Stuttgart, 1963), p.55: ‘blieb die Haarseite, auf der die Poren zu sehen waren, dunkler und rauher gegenüber der glatteren und weiBeren Fleischseite.’ Diringer, David, The Hand-Produced Book (New York, 1953), p.192, incorrectly says that the flesh side is darker.Google Scholar
page 339 note 3 Auli Persi Flacci Satirarum liber, ed.Isaac Casaubon (Paris, 1605), p.235.
page 339 note 4 Aen.8.276.
page 339 note 5 Origines (ed.Lindsay), 6.11.4: ‘Membrana autem aut candida aut lutes aut purpurea sunt.Candida naturaliter existunt.Luteum membranum bicolor est, quod a confectore una tinguitur parte.’
page 339 note 6 D.Junii Juvenalis Auli Persii Flacci Satyrae cum veteris scholiastae Ce variorum cornmentariis (editio nova; Amstelaedami, 1684) p.52 (of the section on Persius).
page 339 note 7 Cf.Ovid, Tristia I.I 5; Martial, 3.2.10, 8.72.1, 10.93.4; Lucian, ‘On Salaried Posts in Great Houses’, 41; idem, ‘The Ignorant Book-Collector’, 7.
page 339 note 8 Tibullus (ed.Postgate), 3.I.9.: ‘lutes sed niveum involvat membrana libellum’.
page 340 note 1 e.g.Sir Thompson, Edward MaundeAn Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford, 1912), p.32.Google Scholar
page 340 note 2 Cf.Persius, 3.19: ‘An tali studean calamo?’
page 340 note 3 The arguments against the assumption that Persius' bicolor membrana was a wrapper are brilliantly expounded in Theodor Birt Das antike Buchwesen (Berlin, 1882), p.60.
page 340 note 4 Juvenal, 7.23.
page 340 note 5 Cf.D.Iunii Iuuenalis Saturae xiv, ed.Duff, J.D. (Cambridge, 1940), p.271Google ScholarD.Zuni Iuuenalis Saturarum libri v, ed.Wilson, Harry Langford (Boston, 1903), p.67Google Scholar (of the commentary): D.Junii juvenalis Saturarum libri v, ed.Friedlaender, Ludwig (Leipzig, 1895), p.369.Google Scholar
page 340 note 6 For a presentation and discussion of this evidence, see Richard R.Johnson, ‘Ancient and Medieval Accounts of the “Invention” of Parchment’, California Studies in Classical Antiquity, iii (1970), 115–22.Earlier the Romans had employed leather (rather than parchment) rolls to some extent—cf.Festus, De verborum signification, s.v.‘clypeum’, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 4.58.4.
page 340 note 7 See my unpublished dissertation, ‘The Role of Parchment in Greco-Roman Antiquity’ (submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History, The University of California at Los Angeles, 1968), pp.3–21.
page 340 note 8 Cf.Johnson, ‘Ancient and Medieval Accounts of the “Invention” of Parchment’, Pp.117 f.
page 340 note 9 Plutarch, referring to the Pergamene library as it was in the first century B.c., speaks only of rolls (
)—Vita Ant.58.Unfortunately, we do not know whether any of them were parchments.
page 340 note 10 18.2.p.630 (ed.Kühn):
The passage presents many difficulties (see G.A.Gerhard and 0.Gradenwitz, ‘EM neuer juristischer Papyrus der Heidelberger Universitätsbibliothek’, Neue Heidelberger, jahrbücher cher, xii [1903], 141–83, n.38 on pp.171 ff.), not least of which is “
.”.I would suggest instead of this the reading “
or, perhaps,
”—cf.Johnson, ‘The Role of Parchment in Greco-Roman Antiquity’, pp.55 f.When
does not refer to a roll, Galen makes this clear (cf.xii, P.423 “
”).
page 340 note 11 Cf.Inschriften von Priene, ed.Gaertringen, F.Frhr.von (Berlin, 1906), nos.112,Google Scholar 113, and 114; Wilcken, Ulrich, ‘Zur Geschichte des Codex’, Hermes, xliv (1909), pp.150 f.Google Scholar
page 341 note 1 For papyrus rolls, see Černý, Jaroslav, Paper and Books in Ancient Egypt (Edinburgh, 1952), p.17; for leather rolls, cf.G.R.Driver, Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B.C.(rev.ed., 1957), p.4.Google Scholar
page 341 note 2 Thus Maimonides warns ( Jewish) scribes against writing religious works on the wrong side (i.e., the verso) of a hide—cited by J.B.Poole and Read, R., ‘The Preparation of Leather and Parchment by the Dead Sea Scrolls Community’, Technology and Culture, iii, No.1 (1962), 1–26Google Scholar, 18.Cf.Martial 8.62.Such opisthographs were seldom, if ever, intended for sale—cf.Frederic Kenyon, G., Books and Readers in Ancient Greece and Rome (2nd edn.; Oxford, 1951), p.63.Google Scholar
page 341 note 3 Cf.Pliny the Younger, Epp.3.5 and Juvenal 1.4–6.
page 341 note 4 For the varieties recognized by the ancients, see especially Pliny, N.H.35.41–3 and Vitruvius 7.10.1–4.Dioscorides (5.182) suggests a mixture of three parts soot to one part gum.
page 341 note 5 Sir Humphry Davy, ‘ Some Observations and Experiments on the Papyri Found in the Ruins of Herculaneum’, Philosophical Transactions, cxi (1821), 191–208, 205.Google Scholar
page 341 note 6 Cf.Partington, J.R., The Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry (London, 1935), p.207.Google Scholar
page 341 note 7 An analysis of the ink on twelve parchments in the British Museum (third and fourth century A.D.in date) showed that three were carbon (i.e., India) inks—Atkin Lewis, ‘The Lachish Letters and the Use of Iron Ink in Antiquity’, Nature, 00011X (1937), 470.
page 341 note 8 Nowack, William, ‘Ink’, The Jewish Encyclopaedia, vi (1906), 585 f.Google Scholar
page 341 note 9 Poole and Reed, pp.19 f.
page 341 note 10 ibid.
page 341 note 11 Cf.Blmner, Hugo, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Kiinste bei Griechen und ROmern (4 vols.; Hildesheim, 1969), p.250, n.3.Google Scholar
page 341 note 12 Orth, ‘Safran’, R.E.Ser.2, Vol.i (1920), cols.1728–31, col.1730.
page 341 note 13 Dioscorides (ed.Sprengel), 5.182.
page 341 note 14 Nies, ‘Atramentum sutorium’, R.E.ii.2 (1896), cols.2135–6, col.2135.
page 342 note 1 Feldhaus, Franz Maria, Die Technik der Vörzeit der geschichtlichen Zeit and der Naturvölker (2nd edn.; Munich, 1965), col.1199.Google Scholar
page 342 note 2 Cf.Hiss, A.Emil and Ebert, Albert E., The New Standard Formulary (5th edn.; Chicago, 1920), p.1075.Google Scholar
page 342 note 3 The parchment leaf of Demosthenes' De falsa legatione (B.M.Add.MS.34473 (I)), which probably dates from the second century, was written with an iron ink—Lewis, p.470.
page 342 note 4 Hence Davy believed that an iron—gall ink was introduced when parchment began to be used-Davy, p.205.
page 342 note 5 Isidore, Origines 6.1.2: ‘Fiebant autem primum coloris lutei, id est crocei, postea vero Romae candida membrana reperta sunt …’.The techniques used in making white parchment of a better quality may well have rendered the use of India ink a bit more feasible by reducing the amount of grease in the parchment.In the Middle Ages, however, iron ink was very generally used on parchment.This was not simply a western custom, since Lucas found only iron inks on the medieval Egyptian parchments he tested.Lucas, A., ‘The Inks of Ancient and Modern Egypt’, The Analyst, xlvii (1922), 9–15, II.Google Scholar