Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-17
FACTS ABOUT PAPER.


Some Interesting Historical Notes Con-
corning Its Origin.
We have raked up the following facts
from few musty tones, which we
trust, will please numerous CORES
pondents, and prove as interesting to
them as it has been laborious for US to
unearth them. 1t is not known when
paper was first made from linen rags,
DR.. Prideaux is of the opinion that
linen paper was brought from the East,
because many of the Oriental manu-
scripts are written upon it. Mabilon is
of the opinion that the invention be-
longs to the twelfth century. One of
the earliest specimens of paper from
linen rags yet discovered is a docu-
ment, with the seal preserved. bearing
date A. d. 1889, signed by Adolphus,
Count of Schaumburg. Casiri. how
ever, asserts that there are in the Es-
curial number of manuscripts, both
upon cotton and linen paper, which
We're written prior to the thirteenth
century. The invention was early in
troduced into England, for some acts
in existence of John Cranden, Prior
of Ely, made on linen paper, bear date
in the fourteenth year of the reign of
King Edward H., A. d. 1889; and lin 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 a note to
the London Athengunn, wrote: 81 have
made little discovery, which, Think,
will be considered curious in the his
tory 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 fourteenth. 1t is I'm
derstood to have been brought west
ward from Italy, where it was in use
earlier; and l believe that our word
paper-a corruption, of course. of
papyrus-is considered to have been
borrowed, with the article itself, from
the French. l saw, years ago in Paris
i believe they belonged to the royal
collection Git was in the time of Louis
Phillippe)-a few of the earliest docu-
ments on paper known, belonging to
Western Europe, in the period since
the Romans, which interested me much.
They consisted of receipts, or rather,
bonds, for money borrowed from the
Jews in the time of Occur de Lion,
given by chiefs who we're starting for
his crusade, and, if 1 remember well,
the paper resembled much that of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, except
that it 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 / am just pass
ing through the press an edition of a
glossary of Latin and English-or, as
we are accustomed to call it, Anglo
Saxon-words of, 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
l find papyrus. paper. The word
paper does not occur in DIR. Bos-
worth's. or any other AnglO-Saxon
dictionary, but we have here evidence
that it was in use in our language at
very early period and there cannot be
a doubt that we derive it from the An
glo-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 an Anglo-Saxon form
in their own language. must have been
pretty well acquainted with paper it
self, and no doubt they found the
Roman paper in use on the island
when they came. 1t is fact, indeed.
which opens to us several others,
equally new, in the social history OF
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. need
hardly add that paper probably never
went entirely out of use in Western
Europe after the Roman times, and a
little research might still throw some
curious light upon its history during
the early Middle Ages. 1t certainly
was not supposed before that it might
be in use among the Anglo-Saxons."-
The Paper MIL.