How would a magi make enchanted paper or parchment?
Or a completely new type of writing material for that matter?
Enchant it like any other object I'd assume?
that does make sense, however I was thinking in terms of what items you would make out of enchanted paper.
Charged items would be my guess, there's a guy doing that in Through the Aegis as I recall.
Or you could enchant a whole book, like the numerologist's book mentioned in TMRE.
But really, that's one of the beauties of Ars Magica - you can enchant anything into almost anything, as long as the Vis capacity is high enough.
Enchanted books and/or paper make excellent magical items that can be activated in a subtle way among mundanes. For example people would be afraid in a robed man would wave a stick while saying words in latin, and a house is suddenly caught on fire. But no one would think to link the robed man reading a book (in most people's eyes - this is just a scholar) and a house catching fire. In both examples the magi makes the house burn down, but in the first example he will be branded a devil-bound warlock by the pesants.
Depends on where he was reading it. Given how different books were then compared to now, particularly in that they were very bulky and needed special care to make last, most people would find it incredibly suspicious for a magus to be reading outside, even if nothing obvious (like a house catching fire) happens. And if my reading of the Gift is correct, a magus is likely to draw suspicion no matter what he is or isn't doing, unless he's very careful to just seem like an average member of a crowd.
I would like to point out to"Girdle books". It is common to see medieval book as huge, bulky items, but smaller books, especially bible or religious books.
I found the concept of Girdle book very nice and perfectly adapted for numerology magic.
Also, as I was researching the subject, it is estimated that around 12th century, the space was introduced in writing (before, words were just put one after the other), at the same time as silent reading was becoming more common.
So if it is relevant for your game, it is possible to find small portable books as well as silent reading during the period which is the official set up for Ars 5th ed.
Considering that the Order is probably the biggest books producer in the world, it is not unlikely for a magus to have ordered a book to be copied in a specific format, more suitable for his usage. Considering that for the common folk, the only litterate person they know are religious one, as long as a magus dress accordingly (red robe, with skulls hanging from a belt is not recommanded), he can be seen as a strange religious guy mumbling words while reading the bible. It might draw attention, but not make him the first suspect in the case of the fire discussed above.
Or if properly enchanted the book w/could put out the fire instead!
I'm thinking if you have paper with charged item enchantment you effectively have a magical scroll.