SG2 
PAP 
fuppofes a great variety of previous experiments, was firft 
reduced to practice. The application of cotton to the 
purpofes of paper-making requires as much labour and 
ingenuity as the nfe of linen rags; and for this reafon, if 
we could determine the precife time when paper was 
made from cotton, we fhould alfo fix the invention of 
the art of paper-making as it is now praftifed in Europe. 
Father Montfaucon proves, by inconteftable authorities, 
that paper from cotton was in ufe in noo. This paper 
in the Greek language is called x a Z r ' /l ! 3 vpQv>u no;, or 
@a.u]£a.y.M <;; for although is the Greek word for 
111k, yet in thofe times it was applied, as well as 
to cotton; and hence the Italians to this day call cotton 
lambaecio. 
The mod ancient manufcript of this paper which fa¬ 
ther Montfaucon law with the date, was that in the 
French king’s library, written A. D. 1050; but as the 
manufcripts without .date are infinitely more numerous 
than thofe which are dated, and as fome conjefture can 
be formed concerning them from the manner of writing, 
this father believes fome of them to have been written in 
the tenth century. The refearches of the lame learned 
antiquarian amount almolt to a proof that this paper was 
difcovered towards the end of the ninth century or be¬ 
ginning of the tenth ; for before the twelfth century it 
was commonly ufed in the eaftern empire, and even in 
Sicily. Roger king of Sicily fays, in a diploma written in 
1145, that he had renewed on parchment a charter which 
had been written on paper of cotton in the year 1100, and 
another which was dated in the year 1112. About the 
fame time the emprefs Irene, in the ftatutes for fome re¬ 
ligious houfes at Conflantinople, fays that fhe had left 
three copies of the fame ftatutes, two in parchment and 
one in paper from cotton. From that period this paper 
was ftill more in ufe through all the Eaftern empire ; and 
innumerable Greek manufcripts are found written on it in 
all the great libraries. 
This difcovery happened at a time when there feems to 
have been a great fcarcity of parchment; for it was about 
this period that the Greeks erafed the writings of 
Polybius, Diodorus of Sicily, and many valuable ancient 
authors, for the fake of the parchment. 
It was the invention of this paper of cotton which de- 
ftroyed the manufacture of the paper of Egypt; for, if we 
may believe Euftathius, who wrote towards the end of the 
12th century, the.latter paper had gone into difufe but a 
little before his time. We may ealily believe, however, 
that this new invention, although of great advantage to 
mankind, was introduced by degrees. 
The manufacture of this kind of paper has flouriftied in 
the Levant for many ages, and is carried on with great 
fuccefs even to this day. It is not necefiary to fay any 
thing farther, than that the paper produced from cotton 
is extremely white, very ftrong, and of a fine grain. 
III. Of PAPER from the BARK of TREES. 
Before the ufe of parchment and paper palled to the 
Romans, they contrived to ufe the thin peel which was 
found on certain trees between the wood of thefe trees 
and their bark. This fecond fkin they called liber, from 
whence we have derived the names of library and librarian 
in the European languages, and the French their livre for 
book. Anciently, inftead of folding this bark, this parch¬ 
ment and paper, as we fold ours, they rolled itaccordingas 
they wrote on it; and the Latin name which they gave 
thel'e rolls has palled into our languages, as well as the 
others : we fay a volume or volumes, although our books 
are compoled of pages cut, and bound together. 
The trees moil commonly felefted for this purpofe were 
the maple, the plane-tree, the elm, the beech, the mul¬ 
berry, and very frequently the linden-tree. The ancients 
wrote on this inner coat after they had leparated it from 
the bark, beat, and dried it. 
There are many palm-trees in India and America to 
which botanifts have given the name papyraceous, becaufe 
E R. 
the natives have written with bodkins either on the 
leaves or the bark. Such is the American palm, called 
tal by the Indians; and of the fame kind is the guajaraba 
of New Spain. Every palm, the bark of which is ffnooth, 
and the leaves large and thick, may be, ufed for this 
purpofe. 
Mabillon and Montfaucon fpeak frequently of manu¬ 
fcripts and diplomas written on paper made from bark ; 
and pofitively diftinguifh it froth the Egyptian paper, be¬ 
caufe it was thicker and more brittle than the papyrus, as 
well as more apt to cleave or fhiver, by which the writing 
was fometimes loft ; as is the cafe in a bark manufcript in 
the abbey of St. Germain’s, where the bottom of the pa¬ 
per remains, but the outer furface, on which the letters 
had been drawn, is in many places peeled oft’. See Mont- 
fauc. Palaeogr. Gr. lib. i. cap. 2.and Mabill. de Re Diploin. 
lib. i. cap. 8. 
But Maffei, it muft not be forgotten, combats the whole 
fyftem of bark manufcripts and charters as a popular 
error; and maintains, that the ancients never wrote di¬ 
plomas on bark ; that the diftimftion between the paper 
made of papyrus and of cortex is without foundation } 
that the only ufe of the tilia, or linden, was for making 
thin boards or tablets for diptycha, or pocket-books, 
wherein they wrote on both fides, as is done among us : 
an advantage which they could not have in the Egyptian 
paper, by reafon of its thinnefs. 
A French writer on the rules of criticifm wanders ftill 
farther out of the way, when he fpeaks of a fort of paper, 
in Egypt, made of the pit It of the Cyprus : he deferibes the 
manner of preparation, which was by reducing this pith 
to a pulp, and then fpreading it out in leaves. (See Hon. 
St. Marie Reflex, fur les Regl. de la Crit. tom. ii. diff. 
77.) This we fufpeft for a chimera hatched only in the 
critic’s brain. Not but there occur divers anomalous forts 
of paper, which antiquaries are not a little puzzled what 
fpecies to refer them to ; fuch is that of two bulls in the 
archives of the church of Gironne, ifi'ued by the anti¬ 
popes Romanus and Formofus, between the years 891 and 
895. They are two ells long and one broad ; and confift 
of two leaves or pellicles glued together tranlverfely, and 
are ftill legible in molt places. The conjehtures of the 
French literati, in regard to thefe, are numerous ; the 
abbot Hiraut de Belmont has a difcourfe exprefs on the 
occafion. Some will have them made of the leaves of the 
alga, or fea-wreck ; others of the leaves of a rufti, called 
la boga, growing in the marfhes of Roufillon ; others of 
papyrus ; others of cotton, and others of bark. So little 
certainty does there really appear to be in thefe things, 
on which the critics neverthelefs often lay a great ftrel's. 
See Mem. de Trev. Sept. 1711. 
IV. Of the CHINESE PAPER. 
The art of making paper from vegetables reduced to 
ftuff was known in China long before it was pra&ifed in 
Europe : and the Chinefe have carried it to a degree of 
perfeftion hitherto unknown to the European artifts. The 
fine paper in China is fofter and fmoother than that of 
Europe ; and thefe qualities are admirably adapted to the 
pencil, which the Chinefe ufe in writing. Several kinds 
of their paper difeover the greateft art and ingenuity, and 
might be applied with much advantage to many pur- 
poles. They are capable of receiving, for example, the 
imprefiion of types ; and both maps and prints have been 
executed with luccefs on the Chinefe paper. 
The different forts of paper vary in China according to 
the materials of which they are compofed, and to the dif¬ 
ferent manner of manufacturing thofe materials. Every 
province has its peculiar paper. That of Se-chuen is made 
of linen rags as in Europe; that of Fo-kien, of young 
bamboo ; that of the northern provinces, of the interior 
bark of the mulberry ; that of the province of Kiang-nan, 
of the fkin which is found in the webs of the iilk-worm ,- 
finally, in the province of Hu-quang, the tree chu, or ko- 
chu, furnifhes the materials with which they make paper. 
The 
