dove Virgil, De Inventoribus Rerum, c. viii. confefles 
his ignorance of thefe fafts. Scaliger, without any kind of 
proof, gives the glory to the Germans ; and Maffei to the 
Italians. Other writers afcribe this honour to fome 
Greek refugees at Bafil, to whom the manner of making 
paper from cotton in their own country had fuggefted 
the idea. Du Halde is perfuaded that Europe derived 
this invention from the Chinefe, who, in feveral provinces, 
make paper of rags, nearly in the fame manner that we 
do. But this invention was praftifed by the Europeans 
before they had any communication with China, and 
before the taking of Conftantinople, at which time the 
Greek refugees were fuppofed to have retired to Bafil. 
The precife time of this difcovery in Europe is not ex- 
aftly known. Father Mabillon believes that it was in the 
twelfth century 5 and cites a paflage of Pierre de Clugny, 
born A. D. 1100, to prove it. The books which we read 
every day, fays that abbe in his treatife againft the Jews, 
are written on flieep and calves (kins; or on oriental 
plants ; or, finally, Ex rafuris veteritm pannorum. If thefe 
laft words fignify paper, fuch as we ufe, there were books 
of it in the twelfth century. But this citation is the more 
to be fufpefted, as Montfaucon himfelf, after the minu¬ 
ted fearch in France and Italy, could find no book on 
this paper antecedent to the death of St. Louis, A.D. 1270. 
The epocha of this invention was not determined till 
1762, M. Mierman having propofed a reward to the per- 
fon who could procure the moit ancient manufcript writ¬ 
ten on this kind of paper. The collection of all the 
memoirs fent to him along with the manufcripts w'aspub- 
lifhed at the Hague in 1767 ; and it appeared that this 
paper had not been ufed in Europe before the year 1300. 
John Tate, who is prefumed to have flourilhed about 
14.96, is faid to have firft made paper in England, or was 
at the expenfe of introducing the manufacture : for evi¬ 
dence is produced, that the Englifh edition of Bartholo- 
meus, printed by Wynkin de Worde, was the firft book, 
for any thing we yet know to the contrary, that was prin¬ 
ted upon paper made in this nation. Fojiroohe's Records 
of Gloucefterjhire. 
The Englifh manufacture was a long while in no great 
reputation; but it is everyday improving; infomuch 
that we now import little of the ordinary forts, which 
were formerly all brought from abroad. Yet paper-mills 
are of fome (landing among us. We find one erefted at 
Hartford as early as the year 1588, which was thought to 
have been the firft, (but fee above,) and which is cele¬ 
brated by a noted poet of that age, Tho. Churchyard, in 
a work in verfe, in titled “A Defcription and Difcourfe 
of Paper, and the Benefits it brings; with the fetting 
forth of a Paper-mill, built near Dartford, by a High- 
German, called Mr. Spilman, Jeweller to the Queen,” 
Lond. 1588, 4-to, 
Anderfon (Hill. Com. vol. ii.) fays, that til! about the 
year 1699, there was fcarcely any kind of paper made in 
England but the coarfe brown fort: but, the war with 
France occafioning high duties on foreign paper, the 
French proteftant refugees fettled in England chiefly, and 
alfo our own paper-makers, now began to make white 
writing and printing paper, which, he adds, in length of 
time, has been brought to fo great perfection, both for 
beauty and fubftance, that in our own time we import 
only certain kinds of Genoa and Dutch paper, which bears 
but a very fmall proportion to all the paper ufed in the 
Britifli dominions. This has produced, it is faid, a faving 
to Britain of 190,000k which was paid annually to 
France for paper only. Another writer fays, that the 
Englifh manufactures now provide above feven-eighths 
of the whole quantity of paper confumed in Great Bri¬ 
tain, 
“ In tracing effeCls to their true caufes,” fays Mr. 
Eandfeer, (Left, on Engraving, p. 198.) “ it ought not 
to be forgotten, that the great benefits we have derived, 
and continue to derive, from engraving and printing, 
ought in fairnefs, to be partly alcribed to the difcovery 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1249. 
E R. 3G5 
of the means of converting rags into paper: this proba¬ 
bly helped to fnggefl the idea of printing .” Aware of the 
objeftion that would be made of the diftance of time be¬ 
tween the invention of the one and of the other, he qualifies 
it by faying, “ and perhaps two centuries and a half had 
fcarcely more than brought this invention to the degree 
of perfection neceflary for the reception of impreflions 
from types and engravings.” He proceeds thus : “ Had 
the modern art of making paper been known to the an¬ 
cients, we had probably never heard the names of Fault 
and Finiguerra; for with the fame kind of (lamps which 
the Roman tradefmen ufed for their pottery and packages, 
books might alfo have been printed ; and the fame engra¬ 
ving which adorned the fliields and pateras of the more 
remote ages, with the addition of paper, might have 
fpread the rays of Greek and Etrurian intelligence ovep 
the world of antiquity. Of the truth of this aflertion I 
have the fatisfaftion to lay before you the molt decided 
proofs, by exhibiting engraved Latin infcriptions, both 
in cameo and in intaglio, from the collection of Mr. 
Douce, with impreflions taken from them at Mr. Savage’s 
letter-prefs but yefterday; and alfo a print, taken, with 
permiflion, from a Greek, Phrygian, orEtrufcan, patera, 
in the Hamiltonian collection : the latter is a mere out¬ 
line, in a bad ftyle, of two figures in the Phrygian drefs ; 
and, though it poflefles no merit in itfelf, itfervesto (how 
how little was wanting to the ancients of the modern art 
of printing from the incifions of the graver, and may be 
thought a curiofity, as being in all probability the oldeft 
engraving in the world from which an impreflion has been 
taken on paper. The Britifli Mufeum contains, more¬ 
over, two other ancient engravings, performed exaftly 
in the fame manner as we now engrave on copper 
for printing : of which one, the remains of a Greek pa- 
razonium, has been copied and accurately defcribed by 
Mr. Strutt : the other is alfo claflical both in compofition 
and fubjeft, and is cut on a patera of bronze : Venus at¬ 
tended by Cupid, is reprefented as preferring a complaint 
or imploring a favour of Jupiter ; and Mercury, ordered 
on an errand, is in the aft of departure, ftepping through 
the zodiac.” 
That the art of printing and engraving fliould not be 
impeded in its progrefs when once difcovered, it was ne¬ 
ceflary that we fliould have at hand a cheap material by 
the means of which books and prints might be multi¬ 
plied. A more plentiful and economical fubftance could 
not be conceived than the tattered remnants of our 
clothes, linen worn out, and otherwile incapable of being 
applied to the lead ufe, and of which the quantity every 
day increafes: nor could a more ready operation be ima¬ 
gined, than a few hours’ tritulation in a mill. It has been 
obferved by a French writer, that the difpatch of the 
procefles of paper-making is fo great, that five workmen 
in a mill may furnilh fufiicient paper for the continual la¬ 
bour of 3000 tranfcribers. Whillt the Egyptian papyrus 
was the only kind of paper, it would have been, impofli- 
ble to have procured it in fufiicient quantities to have 
made large editions of books. The cotton paper, though 
in a progreflive Hate of improvement, was but a rude and 
perifliable article, unfit for any of the nice purpofes to 
which paper is now applied. 
The perfection of the art of paper-making dependea 
upon finding a material which could be procured in fuf- 
ficientquantities, and which would beeafyof preparation. . 
Such is the paper nowin ufe, of which we (hall endeavour 
to defcribe the manufacture. 
Of the Art of making Paper, as now praftifed in 
Europe, and chiefly in England. 
In detailing the modern procefs of making paper, 
we.(hall be chiefly indebted to the communications of a 
retired paper-maker, who permits us alfo to make ufe of 
his name; J.Bigg, efq. late of Iping Mills, near Midhurft 
in Suflex. 
The principle upon which the formation of paper de- 
5 A pends. 
