Common Writing Materials of The Middle Ages
In western civilisations, early use of papyrus was soon replaced by parchment made by treating animal hide. A wide variety of parchments from various animal skins, with different texture, quality and hue were widely used for codices, religious and cultural texts. This was replaced by the advent and increasing access and availability of paper.
In eastern civilisations such as India, the principal writing media from the time of Christ were birch bark or bhurjapatra (Sanskrit) and dried palm leaves. The use of paper began only after the 10th century AD. However birch bark and palm leaf continue to be used even today on a limited scale in a rural milieu for the use of horoscopes, wedding invitations and other cultural uses.
In China, the early material was animal bones, later silk, bamboo and wooden slips, until the 2nd century when paper was invented.
Read more about this topic: Writing Material
Famous quotes containing the words common, writing, materials, middle and/or ages:
“This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I am carrying out my plan, so long formulated, of keeping a journal. What I most keenly wish is not to forget that I am writing for myself alone. Thus I shall always tell the truth, I hope, and thus I shall improve myself. These pages will reproach me for my changes of mind.”
—Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
“If only it were God’s will that printed and written materials have as much influence on the people as the princes and their censors fear! Considering the countless good books we have, the world would have changed for the better a long time ago.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed savings and loans associations.... But when taxes must be paid for the lower middle class and poor, the government assumes an aspect of wickedness.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Minerva House ... was “a finishing establishment for young ladies,” where some twenty girls of the ages from thirteen to nineteen inclusive, acquired a smattering of everything and a knowledge of nothing.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)