Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-11-19
THE ORIGIN OF PAPER.
It was First Introduced into Western
Europe I'm the Tenth Century.

| From the Paper Mill.
This quCry is an overcoming one in the
literature OF the day, and has come to be re-
garded by many in the light Of "who
struck Billy Patterson" question. Never
| theless, there is a peculiar charm attaching
to the subject, and The Paper MI can never
find it in its heart to deal CURLY with the eter-
nal questioners. We have raked up the follow
| ing facts from few musty tones, which, we
| trust, will please numerous correspondents,
| and prove as interesting to them as it has been
| laborious for ustto unearth them
1t Is not known when paper was first made
| from linen rags, nor to whom we owe the
invention. DR.. Prideaux is of the opinion
| that linen paper was brought from the east
| because many of the oriental manuscripts
are written upon it. Mabilon is of the opin-
ion that the invention belongs to the twelfth
century. One of the earliest specimens of
| paper from linen rags yet discovered is a
document. with the seal preserved bearing
| date A. d. 1899, signed by Adolphus, Count
OF Schaumburg. Casiri, however, asserts
| that there are in the Escurial a number of
| manuscripts, both upon cotton and linen paper,
which were written prior to the thirteenth
century. The invention was early intro
| duced into England, for there are some
acts in existence of John Cranden, prior of
Ely, made on linen paper, which bear date in
| the fourteenth year of the reign of King Ed
| ward II, A. D. 1920; and in the Cottonian library
| are said to be several writings on this kind of
paper as early as the year 1885,
Some twenty years ago Mr.. Thomas Wright,
| in note to the London AHendun, wrote:
II have made little discovery which,
think, will be considered curious in
| the history of paper. / believe that the
first traces of the use of paper in western
Europe are found toward the end of the
twelfth century, and we have no reason to
| suppose that it was in use in England until
| the thirteenth or the beginning of the four
| teenth. 1t is understood to have been
brought westward from Italy, where it was
in use earlier; and believe that our word pa
per-a corruption, of course, of papyrus-is
considered to have been borrowed, with the
| article itself, from the French. 1 saw, years
ago in Paris-I believe hey belonged
| to the royal collection Git was in the time of
| Louis Phillippe) few of the earliest docu-
ments on paper known. belonging to western
Europe, in the period since the Romans
of receipts, or, rather, bonds, for money
borrowed from the Jews in the time of C9ur
de Leon, given by chiefs who were starting
for his crusade, and. if l remember well,
the paper resembled much that of the if
teenth and sixteenth centuries, except that
1t was of a rather coarse texture. 1t would
seem as if, in the west, its use at this early
period was known principally among the
Jews. Now l am just passing through the
press an edition of a glossary of Latin and
Anglo-Saxon-words of, 1 think, not later
than the middle of the tenth century. We
may safely look upon it as the English of
the days of Athelstan; and in the part
of which l have just received the proof I find
papyrus, paper. The word paper does not
occur i'll DR.. Bosworths, or any other, Anglo
Saxon dictionary, but we have here evil
dence that it was in use in our language at
a very early period, and there cannot be a
doubt that we derive it from the Anglo-Saxon
and have not taken it from the French of
the middle ages But this fact leads us to
another, namely, that our Anglo-Saxon
forefathers, to have the word in Anglo
Saxon form in their own language, must
have been pretty well acquainte1 with paper
itself, and no doubt they found the Roman
paper in use in the island wteu they came
1t is a fact indeed, which opens to us seve-
raj others, equally new. in the social his
tory of our Anglo-SaxOn forefathers. | need
hardly add that paper probably never went
entirely out of use III western Europe after the
Roman times, and little research might still
throw some curious light upon its history dur
ing the earlier middle ages. 1t certainly was
not supposed before that it might be in use
among the Anglo-Saxons."