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The invention of writing, in human communities, marks the passage from prehistory to history. In Egypt this moment was around 3000 B.C. and comes from the need, from the lack of money, to take note of the quantities of cereal supplies that were used and which couldn’t be done mentally, so writing was invented. At first, it is presumed, with a type of signs called hieroglyphics
Writing materials were wooden bars, leather worked into thin sheets, flattened rocks, walls and columns of buildings, , terracotta vases, ivory. The Egyptians, while perfectioning the stone writings, managed to create a light and flexible material, papyrus paper.

The manufacture of the paper is documented in a Theban tomb, 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 bundle. 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.

In Sicily the papyrus seems that has been introduced in the III Century B.C. by Tolomeo Filadelfo II, as a present to Ierone II in sign of the good existing commercial relationships. It seems that in 250 B.C. in Syracuse someone manufactured papyrus paper, but of shoddy quality, not because the plants were different from that Egyptian ones, but because they didn’t use the Egyptian techniques.

A description of the workmanship is furnished by Gaio Plinio II the old (23-79 B.C.). The stem was cut with a knife into thin strips which were set one close to the other on a table to form the shape of the sheet required; over 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 and dried under the sunlight. Thus they obtained sheets of the desired dimension which were rolled up and then preserved.

In Egypt the production stopped in 1061 B.C., because of a prolonged drought of the Nile lasted seven years: the quantity of the water was reduced, the papyri disappeared, the factories failed and the manufacture methods of the paper were not any longer handed down.
Papyrus paper was used until the XI – XII centuries A.C. and was slowly substituted by parchment (perfected writing leather) in turn also substituted by common paper (derived from rags or wood-pulp) invented in China in the I century A.C., which was more economic and lighter and more suitable for the preparation of books. In Europe papyrus paper remains the most appreciated: the Vatican chancellery and the Royal French one used it up to the XI century, the Church of Ravenna up to the X one; S. Augustine apologized for writing upon parchment paper because he was deprived of papyrus paper.

In Syracuse the production begins in 1781 thanks to Saverio Landolina and it continues uninterruptedly up to our days. Today we produce papyrus paper following some of the methods used in the ancient times, in order to obtain soft and natural-coloured sheets.

Hieroglyphics were deciphered after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, that came to the light in 1798 during the Napoleon Expedition in Egypt; the stone reproduced the same text written in 196 B.C. In three different types of writing: hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek.

Paper making in Egypt appeared again only in 1962, but the paper produced is wood like and yellowish, however different from the best papyri of the Pharaohs age (3100/332 B.C.).

In Syracuse, where papyrus paper is produced since 1781, in our laboratories, this prodigy of techniques and art lives again today. Therefore the choice of the right plants, the use of their best part, the immunization treatment made only with natural salts and the appropriate care in handling the sheets during the various drying phases, make the difference between valuable writing paper and the emporetica one for commercial use. In the transparency of a sheet you will notice the weave created by the strips laid one upon another in orthogonal and the care put on the manufacturing.