round it, was held in each hand, at a distance apart
equal to the width of one or more of the transverse
columns of writing. As soon as the eye was carried
down to the bottom of a column, one hand rolled up
and the other unrolled sufficient of the papyrus to
bring a fresh column opposite to the reader's eye, and
so on until the whole was wound round one of the
staves, when, of course, the student had arrived at the
end of his book."

Eumenes, king of Pergamus, being unable to procure
the Egyptian papyrus, through the jealousy of
one of the Ptolemies, who occupied himself in forming
a rival library to the one which subsequently
became so celebrated at Pergamus, introduced the
use of Parchment properly "dressed" for taking
ink and pigments and hence the derivation of the
word "pergamena" as applied to parchment or vellum,
the former substance being the prepared skin
of sheep, and the latter of calves.

The sheets of parchment were joined end to end, as
the sheets of papyrus had been, and when written
upon, on one side only, and in narrow columns across
the breadth of the scroll, were rolled up around staves
and bound with strings, to which seals of wax were
occasionally attached, in place of the more common
leaden bullae.

The custom of dividing wax, ivory, wood and metal