MANUSCRIPTS, literally, writings of any kind, whether on paper or any other material, in contradistinction to printed matter. All the existing ancient manu scripts are written on parchment or on paper. The paper is sometimes Egyptian (prepared from the real papyrus shrub), sometimes cotton or silk paper (charta bombycina). Black and colored inks were used, but the latter chiefly for orna mentation. On rare occasions gold silver were the mediums, though from their cost they are oftenest confined to initial letters. With respect to external form, manuscripts are divided into rolls (volumina), and into stitched books or volumes (properly codices). Among the ancients the writers of manuscripts were mainly freedmen or slaves (scribx li brarii). At a later period the monks were largely engaged in the production of manuscripts. In all the principal monasteries was a scriptorium, in which the scriptor or scribe could pursue his work in quiet.
The most ancient manuscripts still pre served are those written on papyrus which have been found in Egyptian tombs. Several of these are of date con siderably before the Christian era. Next to them in point of age are the Latin manuscripts found at Herculaneum. Then there are the manuscripts of the imperial era of Rome, among which are the Vatican Terence and Septuagint, and the Alexandrine codex of the British Mu seum. Numerous manuscripts of the Old
and New Testaments of the 2d and 3d centuries exist; and among those of pro fane authors may be noted that of Vergil (4th century), in the Laurentian Library at Florence; a Livy (5th century), in the Imperial Library of Vienna; the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus, in the Ambro sian Library, Milan, etc. It was a com mon custom in the Middle Ages to oblit erate and erase writings on parchment, for the purpose of writing on the ma terials anew, manuscripts thus treated being called "palimpsests." The art of illuminating manuscripts dates from the remotest antiquity. The Egyptian papyri were ornamented with vignettes or miniatures attached to the chapters, either designed in black out lines or painted in primary colors in dis temper. From the 8th to the 11th cen tury the initial letters in use were com posed of figures of men, quadrupeds, fishes, birds, etc. In the 16th century the art of illumination became extinct. Some attempts have been made to revive it by adorning paper, parchment, and vellum with designs in color or metals.