MATERTAT.S TO WRITE UPON BEFORK I N VKNI'ION oK PRINTING. 057 



of the fourtccMith century. Ulmunii StrdMiier had established liim- 

 self at Uliu. Born in i:V28, he died in MOT. He has left memoirs in 

 which he recounts his annoyances with some of his workmen." 



Mentel a contemporary of Gutenbero- (1400-1478), established a 

 paper factory at Strasburg. 



John Tate is the first paper maker in England. After him must 

 be mentioned Spielmann, of German origin, jeweler to Queen Kliza- 

 beth. Pie was created a knight and obtained for a term of ten years 

 the exchisive privilege of collecting all the rags required for his mill.^ 



In the beginning, paper was manufactured in a mold — that is to 

 say, the workmen drew directly from the vat of i)aste a cei-tain (juan- 

 tity of it, and. by a particular twist of the hand, he spread it over a 

 frame, whose under side was formed of brass wires (wire cloth) 

 stretched, and pressed against each other, and kept rigid by other 

 metallic threads (cross rods) somewhat stronger, and placed across 

 the first. The whole process of manufacturing paper is too familiar 

 to require anything further to be said regarding it. 



Until recently the opinion of scholars and of all those who had 

 studied the c()mi)osition and the manufacture of paper was that the 

 first products of that industry were made from cotton. The name 

 itself under which pajx'r was designated in Latin and Greek seemed 

 to demonstrate this: Charta bombyeina, cuttunea, damascena. 



Numerous dissertations, erudite enough, but all equally inaccurate, 

 attempted to prove the existence of cotton paper.' All the proofs in 

 favor of this method, based solely on the outside and superficial 

 appearance of the paper, and on the texts containing vague defini- 

 tions, vanished as soon as a really scientific analysis and examination 

 of paper was made. AViesner and Briquet were the first to examine 

 paper with the microscope; the latter has recorded in the Memoires 

 de la Societe des Antiquaries de France {i)" serie, Tome VI% 1885) 

 the result of a microscopic analysis of 1'22 specimens of paper from 

 the most varii^l sources, and embracing a period extending from the 

 eleventh to the fifteenth century. 



The following is the resume of his conclusions: 



There has never been any cotton paper. 



o Musee retrospectif, Class 88, pp. 18-19. ■ 



6 Il)id., p. 121'. 



p Montfaiicoii. Dissci'tulion sur le papyrus, sur lo papier de coton et sur 

 eelui dout on se sert aiijourd'hiii. MOiw. de litterat. tirez des Registres de 

 rAcadcinie roj'ale des Inscriptions et ))elles-l(>ttres depuis 1718 Ti 1725. Paris 

 1720, t. VI, p. 501. — Wattenbacli. Das Schriftwesen in Alittelalter. Leipzig, 

 1S71.— Siclcel. Ilistorische Zeitsehrift, t. XXVII, p. 442.— Wailly (Nat de). 

 Elements de paleographie, etc. 



SM 1004 i2 



