658 MATERIALS TO WRITE UPON BEFORE INVENTION OF PRINTING. 



Hag pai)er is more ancient tlian has been snpposed. It goes back 

 to the tenth century. 



Rag paper was first used in the Orient. It did not penetrate into 

 the Occident until two or three centuries later. 



Paper was filigreed from the thirteenth century in the Occident. 

 This practice was transported later to the Orient." 



It is certain that in China from the very origin of the discovery of 

 paper, bamboo nnist have been used in its niamifactiire. Other vege- 

 table materials may have contributed to the same use. The Japanese 

 l)aper Avhich we know is manufactured from the bark of certain small 

 trees, EdgeAvortia papyrifera, Broussonetia papyrifera, and Wik- 

 strcemia canescens. 



A longer digression upon this subject would carry us l)eyond (,;ii- 

 l^rojected limits. With the discovery of printing we nuist sto]). 



We may conclude by saying that man, inspired by the desire of 

 leaving traces of his life and actions, sought every means to transmit 

 them to his descendants. What an evolution he has j)assed through 

 from the pictographic inscriptions upon the rocks to the ]:)honetic 

 alphabet written on paper and finally printed. 



"Briquet (C. M.) Recliei-ches sui: les premiers papiers employes en Occident 

 et en Orient, dn X ' an XV *■ siecle, i)p. 133-180. Followed by Analyses niicro- 

 scopiquos de pMpiers du moyeu age, pp. 181-205, 1 plate outside the text. 



