What material for writing in the early Middle Ages was the most popular?

The book of the era of antiquity is fundamentally different from the book created in the Middle Ages. The difference is not only in the semantic load and subject matter. Mainly the materials on which they wrote, as well as the instruments they wrote, differ from each other. Because now we will look in detail at what material for writing in the early Middle Ages was the most popular, on what books were written and what was necessary for this.

The transition from antiquity to feudalism

The slave-owning ancient society appears in the historical context as free-thinking, developing, educated. Therefore, multiple written memos, dating from this era, are not just ancient pictograms and rebuses, but full-fledged documents and writings written in dead languages now. However, in those years of literacy, only the richest people were trained. For writing, they used papyrus - so to speak, hard paper, which was transported to Europe from Egypt. With the onset of the Middle Ages, this material for writing has lost its relevance, primarily because relations with the East have deteriorated. Therefore, since the third century, people have switched to parchment.

The history of the origin of a new basis for writing

After the relations with Egypt went bad, in Sicily they began to make their papyrus. But this material for writing could hardly satisfy the demands of the Italian chancelleries. He was yellow, brittle, too porous and was not suitable for writing with a pen. Then the Europeans turned to the invention of the inhabitants of Asia Minor, which appeared in the second century BC. E. These were uncultivated rawhide skins of animals, on which Jews recorded earlier revelations of the Old Testament. The invention belonged to King Pergamus Eumenes II, wherece his name came from.

Parchment was used as a material for writing in the early Middle Ages most widely. It spread throughout Europe, including the Scandinavian countries, and became the main for many religious books and secular treatises.

Versatility of parchment

It turns out that parchment is the most used material for writing in the early Middle Ages. On this basis, we find diplomas, diplomas, diptychs, three-leafed books with directions and even personal notebooks of feudal lords and other representatives of the higher world. In order to make a notebook, at that time it was sufficient to fold the parchment leaf only once. He was soft, versatile and did not hesitate. To create more significant records, a lot of parchment leaflets were collected, which were filed as modern books. In such collections were written religious texts, laws, government regulations and so on.

New library

New material for writing in the early Middle Ages gave impetus to the development of a fundamentally new system of documentation and books. Example one is a library. In the ancient world it is presented to us in the form of numerous scrolls that were stored on shelves. In such an abyss of papyrus find the necessary information was extremely problematic. In the Middle Ages, we see shelves filled with books, each of which has a cover. With this title page, you can determine what kind of information is contained inside. The second example is furniture (oddly enough). The ancient sages worked on music stands, and the medieval feudal lords and priests began writing for the first time at the table. Such an invention as a parchment book became a real find for society. Everyone argued that it is convenient to hold, it is pleasant to read, and most importantly - you can find the necessary information in the shortest possible time.

The secrets of the palimpsest

Is parchment the only material for writing in the early Middle Ages? The answer to this question is partly negative. The fact is that on animal skins were honored to write only noble people, while the poor were not able to afford such a pleasure. Therefore among them the palimpsests became popular. The so-called papyrus leaflets, from which the old texts were washed, and then applied new ones. The ink was scraped with knives, pumice, burned, soaked - in short, there were incredibly many ways. After such procedures, the text was completely lost. On papyrus, new records were made, the value of many of which is not so great as the destroyed predecessors.

An Early Paper

By the 10th century, a letter in the early Middle Ages is moving to a new level. During the years of emigration to Europe, Arabs here appeared paper, which was much cheaper than parchment and more convenient to use. But the type of its production was fundamentally different from the modern one. Sheets were obtained by crushing a special press of linen rag, which after drying was cut. The paper was not as fragile and valuable as papyrus, so they began to decorate it, like parchment, into books, to make from it letters, diplomas and simple notebooks.