The 1st–6th centuries CE featured many important developments in the technology of handwriting and book production.
Writing Surfaces
For texts of considerable length, the most common writing surface in the Mediterranean world was papyrus (Fournet, 2021). Papyri have been discovered in places as widespread as Italy, Greece, and the Levant, but the dry climate of Egypt in particular has preserved countless examples. Papyrus reeds grow naturally in Egypt, which had…