Early Paper Books?

[Sally Jackson <serifm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Bright Friends,

I am very puzzled by something I ran across today.  I was reading "Book
Illumination in the Middle Ages" by Otto Pacht, and on page 14 he says:

It has recently been further established that the Christian community
actively favoured codices in paper at an early date, certainly by the
second century; in other words, there was a change towards the codex but
to one made with cheap writing material.

Further, on page 18:

Early Christian codices, made of paper. . .

All the information I have been able to find elsewhere says that
paper was introduced into Europe in the 12th or 13th century.  Pacht
makes a very clear distinction between paper and papyrus, so I don't
think it possible that he's referring to papyrus in these quotes. Can
anyone shed more light on this?

Sally