86 . PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. []aNNO 1703. 



older: fori have a piece, the writing upon which seems to be about 350 years 

 old, and agrees very well with a charter which I have seen of Thos. Beauchamp 

 Earl of Warwick, bearing date A. D. 1358, and. 32 Edward III. In the 

 archives of the library belonging to the R. R. Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, 

 I saw an inventory of the goods of Henry Prior of Christ's Church there, taken 

 on his decease, the '20th year of King Edward III, and this is written upon 

 paper. In the Coitonian library, though searching after other matters, I could 

 not but observe several writings upon our paper, in the time of most of our 

 kings and queens, as high as the 15th of King Edward III, and I doubt not 

 but there are others more ancient in the same place. But in the east, the use 

 of cotton paper is much more ancient; and I have in the Bodleian library seen 

 an Arabic manuscript, among those which the university bought of Dr. 

 Huntingdon, written in the 427th of the Hegira, i. e. A. D. IO49; and 

 others in the same place, without dates, seem older. 



The proximity of the subject induces me here to take notice, that though 

 the invention of the rolling press is commonly ascribed to Lipsius; yet it seems 

 older than his time, from a printed book in the Bodleian library, placed LAVD. 

 D. 138. This is a missale secundum usum Ecclesiae Herbipolensis, i.e. Wurtz- 

 burg in Germany. Rodolfus, archbishop of that church, sets forth in an in- 

 strument at the beginning of the book, the reasons why he caused this missal 

 to be published, which instrument bears date the 8th of November 1481, by 

 which time he orders all the copies to be finished by Jorius Ryser his printer, 

 who seems to liave done so, since his name, and this year I48I, is written at 

 the end of the book. Instead of a seal to this instrument, is an engraven print 

 being the arms of the see, supported by 2 angels, and St. Kilian, its first bishop 

 and protector, behind; as also this prelate's own arms, with those of the see 

 in another escutcheon, and a very fine mantling. This is extremely well 

 engraven for the time, and equals the performances of some of our best work- 

 men at present. The evident marks of pressure by the plate, with some touches 

 of ink at the edges, the roughness of the print, and other circumstances con- 

 curring, I thought this must needs be wrought off at the rolling-press. But 

 being unwilling to rely too far upon my own judgment, I showed it to several 

 very skilful and curious gentleman, to several printers, engravers, and others, 

 working constantly at the rolling-press, who all concurred, though at different 

 times, one not knowing what another had said, that it was not only excellently 

 well engraven, and this before x\lbert Durer's time, but that it was certainly 

 pulled from the rolling-press, and could be done no other way. And that this 

 print was not done after that time, appears from several notes written here and 

 there in the book. One of them sj)ecifies that William Kewsth, vicar of St, 



