CHAPTER V.

REVIVAL OF INK.

THE DISAPPEARANCE AND PRESERVATION OF INK WRITINGS,
AS ESTIMATED BY LA CROIX--COMMENTS OF
OTHER WRITERS--DE VINNE'S INTERESTING EXPLANATIONS
OF THE STATUS QUO OF MANUSCRIPT WRITINGS
DURING THE DARK AGES WHICH PRECEDED THE INVENTION
OF PRINTING--PRICES PAID FOR BOOKS IN
ANCIENT TIMES--LIMITATIONS OF HANDWRITING AND
HANDWRITING MATERIALS AT THE BEGINNING OF
THE FIFTH CENTURY--WHO CONTROLLED THE RECORDS
ABOUT THEM--INVENTION OF THE QUILL
PEN--THE CAUSE OF INCREASED FLUIDITY OF
INKS--ORIGIN OF THE SECRETA--CHARACTER OF
INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THEM--IMPROVEMENT
OF BLACK INKS IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY AND EMPLOYMENT
OF POMEGRANITE INK.

LA CROIX' preface to his "Science and Literature of
the Middle Ages and the Renaissance," refers to the
Dark Ages:

"In the beginning of the Middle Ages, at the
commencement of the fifth century, the Barbarians
made an inroad upon the old world; their renewed
invasions crushed out, in the course of a few years,
the Greek and Roman civilization; and everywhere