As to cultivation of the plant in Europe, according to Strabo the Romans obtained the papyrus plant from Lake Trasimene and other lakes of Etruria, but this statement is unsupported by any other ancient authority. At a later period, however, a papyrus was cultivated in Sicily, which has been identified by Parlatore with the Syrian variety (Cyperus syriacus), far exceeding in height the Egyptian plant, and having a more drooping head. But in the 13th century it began to fail, and in 1591 the drying up of the Papireto caused the extinction of the plant in that district. It is still to be seen at Syracuse, but it was probably transplanted thither at a later time, and reared only as a curiosity, as there is no notice of it to be found previous to Even after the introduction of vellum as the ordinary vehicle for literature papyrus still continued to some extent in use outside Egypt, and was not entirely superseded until a late date. It ceased, however, to be used for books sooner than for documents. In the 5th century St. Augustine apologizes for sending a letter written on vellum instead of the more usual substance, papyrus (Ep. xv.); and Cassiodorus (V arr. xi. 38), writing in the 6th century, indulges in a high-flown panegyric on the plant and its value. Of mediaeval literary Greek papyri very few relics have survived, but of docu ments coming down to the 8th and 9th centuries many are being brought to light among the discoveries in Egypt.
Mediaeval Latin mss. on papyrus in book form are still extant in different libraries of Europe, viz. : the Homilies of St. Avitus, of the 6th century, at Paris ; Sermons and Epistles of St. Augustine, of the 6th or 7th century, at Paris and Geneva ; works of Hilary, of the 6th century, at Vienna ; fragments of the Digests, of the 6th century, at Pommersfeld ; the Antiquities of Josephus, of the 7th century, at Milan; Isidore, De contemptu mundi, of the 7th century, at St. Gall; and the Register of the Church of Ravenna, of the loth century, at Munich. The employment of this material in Italy for legal purposes is sufficiently illustrated by the large number of documents in Latin which were preserved at Ravenna, and date from the 5th to the loth century. In the papal chancery it was used at an early date and in the loth century papyrus was used, to the exclusion of other materials, in papal deeds. In
France it was a common writing substance in the 6th century (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc. v. 5). Of the Merovingian period there are still extant several papyrus deeds, the earliest of the year 625, the latest of 692. Under Charlemagne and his successors it was not used. By the 12th century the manufacture of papyrus had entirely ceased, as appears from a note by Eustathius in his commentary on the Odyssey, xxi. 39o.
See Melch. Guilandino's commentary on the chapters of Pliny relating to papyrus, Papyrus, hoc est commentarius, etc. (Venice, 1572) ; Montfaucon, "Dissertation sur la plante appellee Papyrus," in the Memoires de Pacademie des inscriptions (1729), pp. 592-608; T. C. Tychsen, "De chartae papyraceae in Europa per medium aevum usu," in the Comment. Soc. Reg. Scient. Gottingensis (1820), pp. 141-208 ; Dureau de la Malle, "Memoire sur le papyrus," in the Mem. de l'institut (1851), pp. ; P. Parlatore, "Memoire sur le papyrus des anciens," in the mem. a l'acad. des sciences (1854), PP. 469-502 ; Blumner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe and Kiinste bei Griechen und ROmern, i. 308-327 (Leipzig, 1875) ; C. Paoli, Del Papiro (Florence, 1878) ; G. Cosentino, "La Carta di papiro," in Archivio storico siciliano (1889), pp. See also W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1896) ; T. Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Berlin, 1882) ; F. G. Kenyon, The Palaeography of Greek Papyri (Oxford, 1899) ; and W. Schubart, Das Buch bei den Griechen und Romern (Berlin, 1907). (E. M. T.) PAR, technically, a commercial and banking term. When stocks, shares, etc., are purchasable at the price originally paid for them or at their nominal or face value they are said to be at par. When the purchase price is higher than the face value, they are above par, or at a premium; when below face value, they are below par, or at a discount. Par of exchange is the amount of money in the currency of one country which is equiv alent to the same amount in the terms of ar_other, both cur rencies being of the same metal and of a fixed standard of weight and purity. (See EXCHANGE.)