Each element of the manuscript tells its own story: the ink, the
paper, the watermarks therein, the wrappers and the seals; the
writing itself is a compenium of tales so great that I have prepared
a separate monograph on the subject. Fuller, writing in 1662, had an
amusing comment on the material of ancient manuscripts, observing that
paper used to partake of the character of the countrymen by whom it was
made. Thus, said he, Venetian paper is neat, subtle and courtlike; the
French is light, and slender, and slight; the Dutch is thick, corpulent,
and gross, not to say sometimes also bibulous, sucking up the ink with
the sponginess thereof.
We may begin from the outside of the manuscript, for in this case, the
externals are not to be ignored; the wrapper itself can tell much about
the authenticity of what lies within.  Wrappers were rarely used
