Letter 11038: Antiquity, that regulator of all things, carefully provided that since many people required the services of our...

38. Senator, Praetorian Prefect, to John, Canonicarius [tax-collector] of Tuscia. [1] Antiquity, the governess of all things, considered carefully that, since recourse had to be had to our bureaus by very many people, a supply of paper should not be lacking but procured beforehand, so that, when the judges were deciding matters that would profit many, sweet benefits might not be attended by hateful delays. This gift was granted to petitioners, so that they should not be greedily bound to a charge for that which had clearly been received from the public bounty on their behalf. A place was taken away from the most shameless of exactions: it specially exempted from losses those for whom the prince's humanity made provision. [2] A beautiful work indeed did ingenious Memphis conceive, that the elegant labor of a single place, woven together, should clothe all the bureaus. There rises a Nile-grown wood without branches, a grove without foliage, a crop of the waters, the fair tresses of the marshes, softer than thickets, harder than grasses, full with I know not what emptiness and empty with fullness, an absorbent tenderness, a spongy wood, which after the manner of a fruit has its strength in the rind, its softness in the pith, light in its tallness yet holding itself upright, the most beautiful fruit of a foul flooding. [3] For what of such a kind is born in any cultivation as that wherein the thoughts of the wise are preserved? Before this, the sayings of sages and the meditations of our elders were in peril. For how could that have been written swiftly which could scarcely be made ready against the resisting hardness of the bark? Surely the ardor of the mind endured unfitting delays, and when words were deferred, men's talents were forced to grow cool. [4] Hence too antiquity named the little works of the ancients 'libri' [books]: for even today we call the bark of green wood the 'liber.' It was unseemly, I confess, to commit learned discourses to unpolished tablets and to imprint upon decayed branches what refined sensibility could discover. With burdened hands it prompted the memory with a few words, nor was he invited to say more to whom such a page seemed to offer itself. But this was suited to the beginnings, since a raw start ought to have such a contrivance as would provoke the talents of those who came after. The inviting beauty of paper is said to flow abundantly, where there is no fear that the material for setting down one's words be withdrawn. [5] For with its snowy back this opens a field to the eloquent, it always stands at hand in abundance and, that it may become manageable, it is gathered up rolled into itself, only to be unfolded for great treatises. A joining without crevices, a continuity made of tiny parts, the snowy entrails of green plants, a writable surface that takes on blackness for adornment, where, with the strokes raised upon it, the most fertile crop of words is planted and renders to minds a fruit ever most sweet, as often as the reader's desire shall have found it: keeping a faithful testimony of human deeds, eloquent of things past, the enemy of forgetfulness. [6] For our memory, even if it retains the substance, alters the words: there, however, is safely stored up that which may always be heard in the same way. Wherefore we decree that you furnish to that assistant the assigned sum of so many solidi from the province of Tuscia out of the third installment, to be charged to the accounts of the thirteenth indiction, so that the public bureau ought to preserve the integrity of its trust with praiseworthy perpetuity. For that office, knowing no failing among mortal things, ever increases by yearly accumulation, continually receiving new matter and guarding the old.

XXXVIII. IOHANNI CANONICARIO TUSCIAE SENATOR PPO. [1] Moderatrix rerum omnium diligenter consideravit antiquitas, ut, quoniam erat plurimis per nostra scrinia consulendum, copia non deesset procurata chartarum, quatinus, cum iudices multis profutura decernerent, odiosas moras dulcia beneficia non haberent. hoc munus supplicantibus datum est, ne avare constringerentur ad commodum, pro quibus a largitate publica constabat acceptum. ademptus est impudentissimus exactionibus locus: specialiter a damnis exemit propter quos principis humanitas dedit. [2] Pulchrum plane opus Memphis ingeniosa concepit, ut universa scrinia vestiret quod unius loci labor elegans texuisset. surgit Nilotica silva sine ramis, nemus sine frondibus, aquarum seges, paludum pulchra caesaries, virgultis mollior, herbis durior, nescio qua vacuitate plena et plenitudine vacua, bibula teneritudo, spongeum lignum, cui more pomi robur in cortice est, mollities in medullis, proceritas levis, sed ipsa se continens, foedae inundationis pulcherrimus fructus. [3] Nam quid tale in qualibet cultura nascitur, quam illud, ubi prudentium sensa servantur? periclitabantur ante hoc dicta sapientium, cogitata maiorum. nam quemadmodum velociter potuisset scribi, quod repugnante duritia corticis vix poterat expediri? ineptas nimirum moras calor animi sustinebat et cum differebantur verba, tepescere cogebantur ingenia. [4] Hinc et priscorum opuscula libros appellavit antiquitas: nam hodie quoque librum virentis ligni vocitamus exuvias. erat indecorum, fateor, doctos sermones committere tabulis impolitis et in veternosis ramalibus imprimere, quod sensualis poterat elegantia reperire. gravatis manibus paucis memoriam commonebat nec invitabatur plura dicere, cui se talis pagina videbatur offerre. sed hoc primordiis consentaneum fuit, quando rude principium tale debuit habere commentum, quod provocaret ingenia sequentium. invitatrix pulchritudo chartarum affluenter dicitur, ubi exceptionis subtrahi materia non timetur. [5] Haec enim tergo niveo aperit eloquentibus campum, copiosa semper assistit et quo fiat habilis, in se revoluta colligitur, dum magnis tractatibus explicetur. iunctura sine rimis, continuitas de minutiis, viscera nivea virentium herbarum, scripturabilis facies, quae nigredinem suscipit ad decorem, ubi apicibus elevatis fecundissima verborum plantata seges fructum mentibus totiens suavissimum reddit, quotiens desiderium lectoris invenerit: humanorum actuum servans fidele testimonium, praeteritorum loquax, oblivionis inimica. [6] Nam memoria nostra et si causas retinet, verba commutat: illic autem secure reponitur, quod semper aequaliter audiatur. quapropter deputatam summam tot solidorum de Tuscia provincia illi subadiuuae ex illatione tertia te praebere censemus tertiae decimae indictionis rationibus imputandam, quatenus scrinium publicum integritatem fidei suae laudabili debeat perpetuitate servare. quod defectum inter mortalia nesciens annua cumulatione semper augescit, nova iugiter accipiens et vetusta custodiens.