The first publication has been credited to the British scholar Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1817–1878), who published for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, one of the Papyri Graecae Magicae V, translated into English with commentary in 1853. He wrote about the content of the Leyden papyrus, published in 1830. Scholarly investigations began with the Dutch historian Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens (1793–1835). Until then, the only papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times.

The first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known, and museums simply showed them as curiosities. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping. Grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits (10 inches) wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits (four inches) wide. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, and smooth the writing surface was. Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus that were sold in the Roman market of the day. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices.

By the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by less expensive paper introduced by the Islamic world which originally learned of it from the Chinese. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree (typically conservative, all papal bulls were on papyrus until 1022), under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, though it was known in Gaul until the middle of the following century. Papyrus was replaced in Europe by the cheaper, locally produced products parchment and vellum, of significantly higher durability in moist climates, though Henri Pirenne's connection of its disappearance with the Muslim conquest of Egypt between 639 and 646 CE is contested. Unless the papyrus was of perfect quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used was also limited. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness.

Roman portraiture fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, from Herculaneum, 1st century ADĬodices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking, and a long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Greco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned. In the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza. 2560–2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu). These documents, the Diary of Merer, date from c. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 20 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE. History A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus Apart from writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts, such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as the First Dynasty), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta. Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses ) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.Īn official letter on a papyrus of the 3rd century BCE It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus ( / p ə ˈ p aɪ r ə s/ pə- PY-rəs) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. BM EA 10591 recto column IX, beginning of lines 13–17) For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation). For the plant it is made from, see Cyperus papyrus. This article is about the paper-like material.

Papyrus glyph in ancient tombstones