With regard to the introduction of paper into Europe, it naturally first made its appearance in those countries more immediately in contact with the Oriental world. Besides receiving the names of charta and papyrus, transferred to it from the Egyptian writing material manufactured from the papyrus plant (see Papyrus), cotton paper was known in the Middle Ages as charta bombycina, gossypina, cuttunea, xylina, Damascena, and serica. The last title seems to have been derived from its glossy and silken appearance. It was probably first brought into Greece through trade with Asia, and from thence transmitted to neighbouring countries. Theophilus presbyter, writing in the 12 th century (Schedula diversarum artium, i. 23), refers to it under the name of Greek parchment—“tolle pergamenam Graecam, quae fit ex lana ligni.” In the 10th century bambadnum was used at Rome. There is also a record of the use of paper by the empress Irene at the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th century, in her rules for the nuns of Constantinople. It does not appear, however, to have been very extensively used in Greece before the middle of the 13th century, for, λvith one doubtful exception, there are no extant Greek MSS. on paper which bear date prior to that period.

The manufacture of paper in Europe was first established by the Moors in Spain, the headquarters of the industry being Xativa, Valencia, and Toledo. But on the fall of the Moorish power the manufacture, passing into the hands of the less skilled Christians, declined in the quality of its production. In Italy also the art of paper-making was no doubt in the first place established through the Arab occupation of Sicily. But the paper which was made both there and in Spain, it must be remembered, was in the first instance cotton paper. In the laws of Alphonso of 1263 it is referred to as cloth parchment, a term which well describes the thick material made from cotton. As, however, the industry was pushed north, into districts where cotton was not to be found as a natural growth or was not imported, other substances had to be pressed into the service. Hence by degrees arose the practice of mixing rags, in the first instance no doubt of woollen fabrics, with the raw material. The gradual substitution of linen, in countries where it was more abundant or where it was the only suitable material at hand, was a natural step in the progress of the manufacture.

The first mention of rag paper occurs in the tract of Peter, abbot of Cluny (1122-50 a.d.), adversus Judaeos, cap. 5, where, among the various kinds of books, he refers to such as are written on material made “ex rasuris veterum pannorum.” At this early period woollen cloth is probably intended. Linen paper was first made in the 14th century; but in the first half of that century it is probable that woollen fabrics still entered largely into the component parts of the pulp—a fact which, however, can only be proved in individual instances by aid of the microscope. This being the case, it is of less practical advantage to try to. ascertain an exact date for the first use of linen in paper-making than to define the line of demarcation between the two classes of paper, viz., that made in the Oriental fashion without water-marks, and that in which these marks are seen. The period when this latter kind of paper came into existence lies in the first years of the 14th century, when paper-making at length became a veritable European industry. Cotton paper of the Oriental pattern, it is true, is still found here and there in use some time after the manufacture of the water-marked material had begun, but the instances which have survived are few and are mostly confined to the south of Europe.

A few words may here be said respecting the extant examples of cotton paper MSS. written in European countries. Several which have been quoted by former writers as early instances have proved, on more recent examination, to be nothing but vellum. The ancient fragments of the Gospel of St Mark, preserved at Venice, which were stated by Maffei to be of cotton paper, by Montfaucon of papyrus, and by the Benedictines of bark, are in fact written on skin. The oldest document on cotton paper is a deed of King Roger of Sicily, of the year 1102; and there are others of Sicilian kings, of the 12th century. The oldest known imperial deed on the same material is a charter of Frederick II. to the nuns of Goess in Styria, of the year 1228, now at Vienna. In 1231, however, the same emperor forbade further use of paper for official documents, which were in future to be inscribed on vellum. In Venice the Liber plegiorum, the entries in which begin with the year 1223 j is made of rough cotton paper; and similarly the registers of the Council of Ten, beginning in 1325, and the register of the emperor Henry VII. (1308- 13) preserved at Turin, are also written on a like substance. In the British Museum there is an older example in a MS. (Arundel 268) which contains some astronomical treatises written on an excellent paper in an Italian hand of the first half of the 13th century. The letters addressed from Castile to the English king, Edward I., in 1279 and following years (Pauli in Bericht. Berl. Akad., 1854) are instances of Spanish-made paper; and other specimens in existence prove that in this latter country a rough kind of charta bombycina was manufactured to a comparatively late date.

In Italy the first place which appears to have become a great centre of the paper-making industry was Fabriano in the marquisate of Ancona, which rose into importance on the decline of the manufacture in Spain. The jurist Bartolo, in his treatise De insigniis et armis, refers to the excellent paper made there in the middle of the 14th century, an encomium which will be supported by those who have had occasion to examine the extant MSS. of Italian paper of that period, which even now excites admiration for its good quality. In 1340 a factory was established at Padua; another arose later at Treviso; and others followed in the territories of Florence, Bologna, Parma, Milan, Venice, and other districts. From the line of factories of northern Italy the wants of southern Germany were supplied as late as the 15th century. As an instance the case of Görlitz has been cited, which drew its paper from Milan and Venice for the half century between 1376 and 1426. But in Germany also factories were rapidly founded. The earliest are said to have been set up between Cologne and Mainz, and in. Mainz itself about the year 1320. At Nuremberg Ulman Stromer established a mill in 1390, with the aid of Italian workmen. Other places of early manufacture were Ratisbon and Augsburg. Western Germany, as well as the Netherlands and England, is said to have obtained paper at first from France and Burgundy through the markets of Bruges, Antwerp, and Cologne. France owed the establishment of her first paper-mills to Spain, whence we are told the art of paper-making was introduced, as early as the year 1189, into the district of Hérault. The French paper of this early date was of course of cotton. At a later period, in 1406, among the accounts of the church of Troyes, such mills appear as mol·ins à toile. The development of the trade in France must have been very rapid, for, as we have already noticed, that country λvas soon in a position to supply her neighbours as well as to provide for her own wants. And with the progress of manufacture in France that of the Netherlands also grew.

A study of the various water-marks has yielded some results in tracing the different channels in which the paper trade of different countries flowed; but a thorough and systematic collection and classification of them has yet to be accomplished. Experience also of the different kinds of paper, and a knowledge of the water-marks, aid the student in fixing nearly exact periods to undated documents. Rag paper of the 14th century may generally be recognized by its firm texture, its stoutness, and the large size of its wires. The water-marks are usually simple in design; and, being the result of the impress of thick wires, they are therefore strongly marked. In the course of the 15th century the texture gradually becomes finer and the water-marks more elaborate. While the old subjects of the latter are still continued in use, they are more neatly outlined, and, particularly in Italian paper, they are frequently enclosed in circles. The practice of inserting the full name of the maker in the water-mark came into fashion in the course of the 16th century. The variety of subjects of water-marks is most extensive. Animals, birds, fishes, heads, flowers, domestic and warlike implements, armorial bearings, <fcc., are found from the earliest times. Some of these, such as armorial bearings, and national, provincial, or personal cognizances, as the imperial crown, the crossed keys, or the cardinal’s hat, can be attributed to particular countries or districts; and the wide dissemination of the paper bearing these marks in different countries serves to prove how large and international was the paper trade in the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the second half of the 14th century the use of paper for all literary purposes had become well established in all western Europe; and in the course of the 15th century it gradually superseded vellum. In MSS. of this latter period it is not unusual to find a mixture of vellum and paper, a vellum sheet forming the outside leaves of a quire while the rest are of paper.

With regard to the early use of paper in England, there is evidence that quite at the beginning of the 14th century it was a not uncommon material, particularly for registers and accounts. Under the year 1310, the records of Merton College, Oxford, show that paper was purchased “pro registro,” which Prof. Rogers {Hist. Agricul. and Prices, i. p. 644) is of opinion was probably cotton paper of the same character as that of the Bordeaux customs register in the Public Record Office, which date from the first year of Edward II. The college register referred to, which was probably used for entering the books that the fellows borrowed from the library, has perished. There is, however, in the British Museum a paper MS. (Add. 31,223), written in England, of even earlier date than the one recorded in the Merton archives. This is a register of the hustings court of Lyme Regis, the entries in which commence in the year 1309. The material is cotton paper, with apparently an admixture of rag, the threads of which are 4 visible, imbedded in the pulp—similar to the kind which was used in Spain. It may indeed have been imported direct from that country or from Bordeaux; and a seaport town on the south coast of England is exactly the place where such early relics might be looked for. Professor Rogers also mentions an early specimen of paper made from rag in the archives of Merton College, on which is written a bill of the year 1332; and some leaves of water-marked paper of 1333 exist in the Harleian collection. Of a date only a few years later is the first of the registers of the King’s Hall at Cambridge, a series of which, on paper, are preserved in the library of Trinity College. Of the middle of the 14th century also are many of the municipal books and records still to be found among the archives of ancient cities and towns. The knowledge, however, which we have of the history of papermaking in England is extremely scanty. The first maker whose name is known is one Tate, who is said to have set up a mill in Hertford early in the 16th century; and a German named Spielman had works at Dartford in 1588. But it is incredible that no paper was made in the country before the time of the Tudors. No doubt at first it was imported. But the comparatively cheap rates at which it was sold in the 15th century in inland towns, as well as in those nearer the coast, seem to afford ground for assuming that there was at that time a native industry in this commodity, and that it was not altogether imported.

As far as the prices have been observed at which different kinds of paper were sold in England in the early period of its introduction, it has been found that in 1355-56 the price of a quire of small folio paper was 5d., both in Oxford and London. In the 15th century the average price seems to have ranged from 3d. to 4d. for the quire, and from 3s. 4d. to 4s. for the ream. At the beginning of the 16th century the price fell to 2d. or 3d. the quire, and to 3s. or 3s. 6d. the ream; but in the second half of the century, owing to the debasement of the coinage, it rose, in common with all other commodities, to nearly 4d. the quire, and to rather more than 5s. the ream. The relatively higher price of the ream in this last period, as compared with that of the quire, seems to imply a more extensive use of the material which enabled the trader to dispose of broken bulk more quickly than formerly, and so to sell by the quire at a comparatively cheap rate.

Brown paper appears in entries of 1570-71, and was sold in bundles at 2s. to 2s. 4d. Blotting paper is apρaι> ently of even earlier date, being mentioned under the year 1465. It was a coarse, grey, unsized paper, fragments of which have been found among the leaves of 15th century accounts, where it had been left after being used for blotting.

See Gerardi Meerman et doctorum virorum ad eum Epistolae atque Observationes de Chartae vulgaris seu lineae origine, Hague, 1767; G. F. Wehrs, Vom Papier, Halle, 1789; Μ. Koops, Historical Account of the substances used to describe events and to convey ideas, from the earliest date to the Invention of Paper (London, 1801), in great part repeating Wehrs—the book is printed on paper manufactured from straw; Erseh and Gruber, Allgem. Encyklopädie, art. “Papier,” Leipsic, 1838; Sotzmann, “Ueber die ältere Papierfabrikation,” in Serapeum, Leipsic, 1846; W. Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter, Leipsic, 1875, pp. 114-123; J. E. T. Rogers, History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Oxford, 1866-82, passim. (E. Μ. T.)

Manufacture of Paper.

Paper is a thin tissue composed of vegetable fibres (rarely of woollen fibres), resulting from their deposition on wirecloth while suspended in water. At first it was entirely made by hand, but the invention in 1798 of the paper machine by Louis Robert, a clerk in the employment of Messrs Didot, of the celebrated Essonnes paper-mills, near Paris, gave a new impetus to the industry. The invention was introduced into England through the agency of Messrs Fourdrinier, who employed Bryan Donkin, the engineer, to assist in working it out; but, although they expended a large fortune in developing the invention, their enterprise resulted only in bankruptcy. Their first paper machine was erected in 1804 at Frogmoor Mill, near Boxmoor, Herts. In the United States it was not till 1820 that such a machine was started for the first time by Messrs T. Gilpin & Co., on the Brandywine. Since that period, machine-made paper has gradually supplanted that made by hand for all except special purposes, and has been brought to a high state of perfection by subsequent* improvements in the machinery.

Paper may be divided into three main classes :—writing paper, printing paper, and wrapping paper. The staple of which writing and printing paper is made is, in Britain, rags and esparto; in America a considerable quantity of wood pulp is used. The staple of wrapping papers is old ropes and in some cases jute. The best writing and printing papers are still made, whether by hand or by machine, from rags.

Manufacture of Paper from Rags.— The first process is the cutting and sorting of the rags, which is invariably done by women. The rag-cutter stands behind a knife about 14 inches long set in an oblique position in a table before her; the rags are cut into pieces about the size of the hand, and the linen pieces separated from the cotton, the various qualities being put into different receptacles. After being cut they are subjected to the action of the willow and duster, which knocks the loose dust off. The willow is composed of two conical cylinders, inside of which iron spikes project. In the interior of these cylinders an iron drum, also provided with spikes, revolves at about 300 revolutions per minute. The rags are fed into the first cylinder by a travelling felt, and dashed through from the one to the other by the action of the revolving drum, and from the second cylinder thrown forward into the duster. This consists of a large rectangular wooden case, in the interior of which an iron cage, covered with coarse wirecloth, revolves slowly at right angles to the willow. This cage is set at a slight incline, so that the rags which are thrown into it by the willow at one end slowly pass to the other, while the dust, &c., which has been disengaged by the action of the willow, falls through the wirecloth, and the dusted rags pass out at the other end, now ready for the boiler. The boiler is of different forms, revolving or stationary. The most usual is stationary. It consists of an upright cylinder of cast or malleable iron (fig. 1), about 8 feet in diameter by 6 feet deep, and fitted with a perforated false bottom, on which the rags rest. The boiler is further fitted with a filling door A at the top, and an emptying door B below. After being charged with rags, it is filled to about half its height with water; a sufficient quantity of caustic soda, varying according to the nature of the rags, is introduced; the door is then shut, and steam is admitted by a small pipe C which is contained in, and communicates at the foot with, a larger pipe D and causes a constant circulation of hot liquid, which is dispersed all over the boiler by striking against a hood E at the top. This is technically known as the “vomit.” The rags are boiled in this solution of caustic soda for ten to twelve hours, when the steam is turned off and the liquid is discharged by the pipe G. After a subsequent washing with cold water in the boiler the lower door is opened and the boiled rags withdrawn into small trucks, and picked by women to remove impurities, such as india-rubber, <fcc.

The rags are now submitted to the action of the breaking engine (figs. 2 and 3). This is an oblong trough with

ιounded ends, and may be about 6 feet wide and 12 feet long by about 2 feet in depth, but the size varies greatly. It is partially divided in the centre by the midfeather A, and provided with a heavy iron roll B, fitted with knives technically called bars, which revolves at a high speed on the plate C, also furnished with knives. The engine is half filled with water and packed with the boiled rags.

Water is introduced by the valve D, and is withdrawn by the washer E. The washer consists of a drum about 3 feet in diameter and 18 inches broad, covered with...