Papyrus Paper in Syracuse since 1781

The manufacture of the paper is documented in a Theban grave, which dates back to 1400 B.C.; in the wall it is portrayed a man who is sticking out from a boat, picks up the papyri, while another one ties them in bundles, on the shore a third man transports the bundle on the back to be delivered to a forth who works the stems sitting on a chair.
A description of the workmanship is furnished by Gaio Plinio II the old (23-79 A.C.). The stem was cut in thin strips with a knife and they were set the one close to the other on a table to form the shape of the sheet desiderated; on this layer other strips were set in right angle as to the first ones; everything was damped with the muddy water of the Nile; then the layers were pressed. Then the sun desiccated them. They thus obtained sheets of the wanted width and the strip was rolled up and preserved.

The description made by Plinio allows to think that these were the principal techniques and that secondary manipulations were used to improve the sheet, on which the different qualities of papyrus paper depend on.
The production techniques were various, as the different qualities of papyrus paper demonstrate. The best papyrus paper goes back to the Pharaoh epoch (3.100 - 332 B.C.); the one reserved for sacred texts was called hieratic. The paper produced in the Roman epoch (until III B.C.) is still good, while that on of the Arab and Byzantine period, which was produced in Egypt, Sicily, Syria and Mesopotamia was coarse.
In Egypt the production stopped in the XI - XII AD and the methods of manufacturing of the paper for writing use were not handed down anymore. Only in 1962 a production quite similar to that one, which ancient Egyptian called "emporetica" (commercial, wrapping paper) begins again.

In Syracuse, where papyrus paper is produced since 1781, in the laboratories of the "Istituto del Papiro", today this prodigy of techniques and art lives again. The first phase of the manufacturing cycle is that of the picking of the plants ….. ; Then in the laboratory we start the selection of the plant: the tuft is dried in order to be framed or to be used for floral compositions; the highest part of the stem, dried, can be used for the production of part of the design articles; the lower part of the plant is the most suitable to the production of paper, because in it we find more concentrated the starches useful to stick the strips among themselves

As we eliminate the bark and the external fibre because it is the woodiest, we proceed cutting the strips, we roll them if they are toot woody, then we group them together in order to obtain the most homogeneous sheets as it's possible, then they are dipped for a certain period in a solution composed of natural and non defiling substances, which is useful to stop the oxidation processes.

The sheet is composed arranging all strips in orthogonal. They are dried and pasted putting them under a press, with the help of cardboards and particularly absorbing clothes. The finished sheets are selected according to their quality and, after other manufactures; they are divided according to their final use (painting, hand drawing, computer printing, objects). Manufacturing is totally hand - made. Therefore the choice of the right plants, its best part use, the immunization treatment made only with natural salts, make the difference between valuable writing paper and the emporetica one for commercial use. In the transparency of a sheet you will notice the reticulate created by the strips laid one upon another in orthogonal and the care of its realization.
The elevate costs of papyrus paper doesn't come from the basic substance, but from the manufacturing technique, to which you have to add the value for writing and decoration; therefore illuminated papyri have an high value if they are manufactured with care and are full of cultural meaning (as every work of art). In Egypt a roll costs a little less than a linen tunic; in Athens a sheet costs as much as a sheep.