cit_00013
Aventinus, Johannes (i.e. Turmair, Johann Georg):
Wie das Pergamen erfunden / und die Lateinisch und Römisch Sprach in eine rechte maß gebracht sey worden.
Text |
Oben hab ich geschrieben / wie das Papyr / so damals im Brauch war / alles au&szllig; Egypten bracht sey |
Translation |
Above I mentioned how the papyrus then in use was all imported from Egypt. You couldn't find anything else. So also the Egyptian emperors had a great, powerful library in their capital, Alexandria, daily improved and enlarged, and appointed a scholar to tend it constantly. At that time Aristarchus maintained the books. And the ones mentioned above Attalus his son Emenes, and Attalus king in Asia, which the ancients called the Trojan Kingdom, which we now call Great Turkey, wanted nothing to do with the Egyptian emperor inferior, and also wanted to bring great benefit to the world, and also receive eternal glory and praise. They set up the finest book chambers in the world in their capital, Pergamon and also summoned a scholar named Crates Malates. Thus the kings had a quarrel in which one wanted to surpass the other in the quantity and value of the books. The Egyptian Emperors didn't want to give in, they also wanted the largest library in the world. Therefore they no longer sent any papyrus from Egypt to the kings mentioned above. But they found one another way, by preparing calfskin, and only pickled the scrap on which one could also write, and no longer asked for papyrus at all. This is still called parchment today, after the Capital where above mentioned kings invented it. And before Crates was sent by his kings to the Roman council at Rome, it was he who taught the Latin and Roman languages dialects how words end and how to write and pronounce them. |
Author |
Aventinus, Johannes (i.e. Turmair, Johann Georg) |
Reference |
Aventinus, Johannes (i.e. Turmair, Johann Georg): Johannis Auentini Des Hochgelerten weitberümbten Beyerischen Geschichtschreibers Chronica (1580), p. 116r |
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