The earliest form of paper, made by compressing layers of strips from the pith of a water reed that grew in the Nile delta (Egypt). In the pre-Christian era sheets of papyri were usually glued together to form scrolls that were written only on one side. But by the end of the first c. CE a pile of papyrus sheets were sewn & folded up the middle to form a codex written on both sides.

In 1897 a major hoard of papyrus fragments from the first-to-ninth c. CE was discovered at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus (Egypt). Scholars number papyri in the order in which they were discovered. Fragments from two papyrus scrolls of the non-canonical gospel of Thomas (pOxy 644 & pOxy 655) are among the oldest known texts containing sayings ascribed to Jesus (ca. 200 CE). Most other surviving Christian papyri, including fragments of another copy of Thomas (pOxy 1), are from codices. Only 6 papyri of canonical gospels can be dated to the same era or earlier. These are:

p52 -- a fragment of John 18 (written ca. 125 CE)
p90 -- a fragment of John (ca 175 CE)
p66 -- portions of John 1, 6, 15-16, 20-21 (ca. 200 CE)
p64; p67 -- fragments of Matthew 3, 5, 26 (ca. 200 CE)
p137--a fragment of Mark 1 (late 2nd or early 3rd c. CE)

Papyri containing more than one gospel date only after 200 CE. There are two mss. containing the texts of Luke & John, one of Matthew & John, and one of Mark & John. The oldest papyrus to present the four gospels in their current canonical order (p45) also comes from the 3rd c. Yet even this contains only fragments of Matt 20-26, Mark 4-12, Luke 6-13, John 10-18 & Acts 4-17.

[For more information on papyri see R. W. Funk Honest to Jesus (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996) pp. 107-120.]

Other On-line Resources:

• Papyrus: illustrated history & preparation of papyrus (from Timothy W. Seid's Interpreting Ancient Manuscripts).

• Parchment [sic] - mistitled entry in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology details the history and production of papyrus mss.  (Bar-Ilan U, Israel).

• List of NT papyri with K. Aland's categories of texts details dating, contents of each ms. & its current repository.

• Another Catalogue of NT Papyri & Codices from the 2nd to the 10 c. CE is posted by K. C. Hanson.

• Papyrus - article on the etymology and history of papyrus making with links to major papyrus collection websites (Wikipedia).

• Historical Papyrus - Jimmy Dunn's detailed description of making and uses of papyrus in ancient Egypt (posted by Tour Egypt).