Note 231 — ESSAYS. (continued 3)

Pliny contradicts himself on the subject of parchment. In b. xxxv. he says that Parrhasius painted or drew upon it; but b. xii. c. 10, he ascribes the invention of it to Eumenes, king of Pergamos, who lived after the time of Parrhasius, saying that he invented parchment because Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had prohibited the exportation of paper made of the papyrus. I cannot help believing that parchment was known before the time of Eumenes. He may have improved it, and hit upon a method of rendering it more fit for writing upon.