Chronology of Paper

It has been claimed that the earliest manuscript in England on linen paper has the above date (See 1320).

In the Cottonian Library of the British Museum, it is said there are several writings on this kind of paper, as early as the year 1335. Linen paper gradually supplanted that made of cotton.

The Royal Society of Gottingen adjudged to John Daniel Fladd a prize medal of twenty-five ducats for the discovery of the most ancient linen paper, which bears this date. It is claimed that earlier specimens have been found. (See 1319.)

There was a large manufactory of paper at Fabbriano in Italy, which, according to the description of Bartolus, had been long established, and enlarged from time to time, till it consisted of several mills belonging to different persons, although the whole formed only one manufactory of cotton paper.

Although cotton paper was early introduced into Germany, and at the commencement of the ninth century was known under the name of Greek parchment, and although cotton and flax were spun and wove in that country in the tenth century, the manufacture of paper can not be traced beyond the middle of the fourteenth century, when it was made by stamping mills.

Date of a Bill which reads : "To George Cosyn, for one quartern of royal paper, to make painters' patterns, iod."

The first paper mill in Austria, established for producing paper from linen rags, was erected at Leesdorf, near Baden. This place now (1874), produces the best paper machines. [By a transposition of figures, apparently this date has been given as 1536.]

Ulman Stiomer began to write at Nuremberg the first work ever published on paper-making.

The Paper Trade Journal of January 15, 1874, states that the manufacture of paper in France was begun this year.

The senate of Venice granted an exclusive privilege to the paper-mill at Treviso, that no linenpaper shavings or offal should be exported from Venice than for the use of that mill. This would seem to show that linen paper was already in use there.

It is thought that there was no linen paper used in Italy before this time. The knowledge of cotton paper came by means of the Greeks to Italy and the art of making it in Sicily, through the invasion of the Saracens.

A document of a notary of this date proves the use of linen paper in Italy; and Maffei states that he possessed a family manuscript of linen paper of the same date, and he therefore attempts to appropriate the invention of linen paper to Italy.

Du Cange cites the following lines from a French metrical romance written about this time, to show that waxen tablets continued to be occasionally used till a late period :

Some with antiquated style
In waxen tablets promptly write;
Others with finer pen,
the while Form letters lovelier to the sight.

There are many ample and authentic records of the royal household of France, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, still preserved, written upon waxen tablets.

A charter of this date, given at Fabbriano in Italy, relates to the lease of a mill with a waterfall, adfaciendas cartas. It was from the mills of this place that Bodoni, at the commencement of the present century, obtained the paper for his beautiful editions.

Ulman Stromer established a large paper mill at Nuremberg, where were many Italian workmen. He employed two rollers, which set eighteen stampers in motion; but when he would add another roller, he was opposed by the Italians whom he employed, who would not consent to the enlarging of his manufacture; but they were imprisoned by the magistrates, when they submitted, renewing their oaths. He died in 1407.

This is the first mill known to have been erected in Germany, which is said to have made the first paper from rags in Europe. But see 1350, 1366, etc.

There were paper-mills at Colle in Tuscany, which were moved by water power.

It is said that copies ofthe Bible printed upon parchment, by Gutenberg of this date, are found at Berlin, Brunswick, St. Blaise Monastery, and Paris, in three volumes, folio. This was possibly the first printed Bible, instead of the one known as the Mazarine. Bible, of 2 vols.

After the fall of Constantinople some Greeks established a manufactory at Basle, in Switzerland.

An edict of Charles VIII., attests that there were manufactories of paper at Troyes, Corbeil, and Essonne.

We have the authority of the Paper Trade Journal, that the first paper mill in Switzerland was erected this year.

Sweynheim and Pannartz, in a petition to the pope for assistance, informed him that the number of books they had printed and which remained on their hands was so great that he would admire how and where they could have procured a sufficient quantity of paper, or even rags, for such a number of volumes, which amounted to 12,475. This would probably have required about 1,250 reams.

An entry (May 25) has been found in the privy purse expenses of Henry VII., as follows : "For a rewarde yeven at the paper mylne, i6s. 8d.," which establishes the fact that a paper mill preceded that of Spilman nearly a century, and was probably the mill mentioned below. And again in 1499: “Given in reward to Tate of the mill, 6s. 3d.”

In Wynken de Worde's edition De Proprietatibus Rerum, it is stated that the paper was made by John Tate the younger, in these quaint lines : "And John Tate the younger Joye mote he broke, Whiche late hathe in Englond doo make this paper thynne, That now in our englyssh this book is prynted Inne."

This mill was at Hartford. The water-mark he used was an eight-pointed star within a double circle. A print of it is given in Herbert's Typ. Antiquities, I, p.200.

Paintings of this date by Julio Clavio, on parchment, are preserved in the Vatican. The art of painting on parchment was common before the art of painting with oil colors was discovered.

John Tate died, who is supposed to have erected the first paper mill in England, about 1498, though we may safely conclude that the very earliest paper-mills in England went far back as 1493.

An ancient water-mark (erroneously so termed) of this era, consisted of a hand with a star at the fingers' ends, and is supposed to have given the name to what is still termed hand paper.

A favorite paper-mark of this time was the jug or pot, and is supposed to have originated the term pot paper. Thefool's cap was of a later date, and has given place in England to the figure of Britannia.

About this time Henry VIII., of England, in the wildness of his hatred of the pope, used for his correspondence a paper of which the water-mark was a hog with a mitre.

Henry II., of France exempted paper from all taxes and subsidies.

Churchyard's Spark of Friendship was first printed this year, and mentions the paper-mill of Spilman, which is often quoted as the first paper mill in England under the date of 1588, q. v. (See also 1498.)

Around 1588, Nicholas, in his Progresses of Queen Elizabeth., gives a poem with the following title “A Description and Playne Discourse of Paper, and the whole Benefits that Paper brings, with Rehearsall, and setting foorth in Verse a Paper-myll built near Darthforth, by a high Germaine, called Master Spilman, Jeweller to the Queene’s Majestie.”

This is supposed to have been the second paper-mill in England, and is often mentioned as the first. It was erected by a German named Spielman, or Spilman, in reward of which he received from Elizabeth the honour of Knighthood in 1591.

A document in the Land Revenue Records of England, reads: “Fenclifton, Co. Cambridge; lease of a water mill called paper-mills, late of the bishopric of Ely, to John George, dated 14th July, 34th Eliz.” This is evidence of a third paper mill in England at this time.

Master Spilman, 1 Jeweller to the Queen’s Majesty 2
By
Thomas Churchyard
(Then) he that made for us a paper-mill,
Is worthy well of love and world’s good will,
And though his name be Spill-man, by degree,
Yet Help-man now, he shall be called by me.
Six hundred men are set at work by him,
That else might starve, or seek abroad their bread;
Who now live well, and go full brave and trim,
And who may boast they are with paper fed.
A high Germaine he is, as may be proved,
In Lyndoam Bodenze, borne and bred,
And for this mill, may here be truly loved,
And praised, too, for deep device of head.

Shakespeare, in 2 Henry VI., (the plot of which is laid at least a century previously), refers to a paper-mill. In fact, he introduces it as an additional weight to the charge which Jack Cade brings against Lord Saye. See Paper-Mills for more.

A work printed in this year mentions a paper-mill at Fen Ditton, near Cambridge, England.

Charles IX., of France having put an impost upon paper, the university brought the subject before the parliament, when Montholon and De Thou advocated the abolition of the tax, and the university gained its cause.

Charles IX., of France, at the remonstrance of the University and the decision of the parliament, abolished the duty which he had laid upon paper.

A document in the Land Revenue Records of England, reads thus : "Fenclifton, Co. Cambridge; lease of a water mill called paper mills, late of the bishopric of Ely, to John George, dated I4th July, 34th Eliz." This is evidence of a third paper mill in England at this time.

Under the reign of Louis XIII., of France, an impost upon paper was established, but with the condition that the fermier should pay each year the sum often thousand livres to the royal printing office and the University of Paris.

The manufacture of wall paper was begun about this time; as a substitute for the ancient bangings of tapestry, or cloth, they reached a high state of beauty and perfection.

England imported from Holland alone, paper to the amount of 100,000 pounds.

The Great Fire of 1666 inflicted great loss upon the booksellers. Of this there is an interesting testimony in a little book entitled Scriptures Self-Evident (London, printed for Edward Brewster, and are to be sold at Mr. Marriotts a scrivener, over against Hicks-Hall in St. John’s Street, 1667, p. 191):

The late dreadful Fire, kindled by our God-provoking sins and abominations, transcending all our Forefathers, (after so many miracles of mercies and deliverances) within three days space turned no less than eighty-eight Parishes and Parish-Churches, with the Cathedral Church of the late great and glorious City of London, into heaps of ashes and rubbish, to the just horror and amazement of all spectators of their flames and ruins; which as it proved extremely prejudicial and destructive to most Companies of the City, yet none of them received so grand losses and damages by the devouring Conflagration as the Company of Stationers, most of whose Habitations, Store-houses, Shops, together with all their Stocks, Books, bound and unbound, (by reason of their combustibleness, and difficulty to remove them) were not only consumed in a moment, but their ashes, and scorched leaves, carried with the violence of the wind in the air, were scattered in sundry places above 16 miles from the City, to the great admiration of the Beholders. Amongst other millions of Books thus suddenly consumed, this little Book suffered in the same kind; however, thou hast it now with many Additions. Reader, pray for the Author, and beg a blessing upon his endeavours for thy good.
Farewell.

This is followed by a list of the notable fires that preceded the Great Fire of London. Scriptures Self-Evidence belongs to the long controversy as to the “Only Rule of Faith,” and has escaped the notice of the bibliographers of the Papal Controversy of the seventeenth century. It is not in such a treatise that we should expect to find a curious bit of evidence as to the destruction of literature caused by the Fire of London. (Axon).

• 1595: The Spaniards raided the coast of Cornwall and burnt the church at St. Paul, when the registers perished in the conflagration.

• 1598 Oct.: Edmund Spencer’s castle in Kilcolman was burnt to cinders.

• 1613: The Globe Theatre fire burns acting manuscripts.

• On the January 16, 1618–19 Mr. Chamberlain wrote thus to Sir Dudley Carleton: “Since my last we have had a great mischance by fire at Whitehall, which beginning in the Banqueting House hath quite consumed it, and put the rest to great danger, but that there was so much help at hand, besides that which was sent out of London on all sides, and so good order taken by the presence of the Lord Chancellor [Bacon], the Duke of Lennox, and the Earl of Arundel, that all passed with as much quiet as was possible in such a confusion; and the fire, that was exceeding furious, kept from spreading further than the limits of that building, saving only, that the vehemence of the heat burnt down one of the rotten terraces or galleries adjoining, and took hold of the pulpit-place, which was soon quenched. One of the greatest losses spoken of is the burning of all or most of the writings and papers belonging to the offices of the Signet, Privy Seal, and Council Chamber, which were under it.”

• 1621 Dec. 15: In a letter written by John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton: “On Sunday night there was a great fire at the Fortune, in Golden Lane, the fayrest playhouse in this town. It was quite burnt downe in two hours and all their apparell and playbooks lost, whereby the poor companions are quite undone.” A new Fortune arose three years later on the site of the old one, namely in 1624. An improvement in the building was effected by constructing the house of brick. Allen possessed shares in the new theatre; otherwise he had no interest or responsibility in the undertaking.

• 1666 Sept.: The Great Fire of London was in direct line with the Bacon printing house turning all manuscripts to ash. Another Baconian house was burnt: Bergeny House.

• 1676: The old register of Arborfield, Berkshire, was destroyed by a fire at the rectory. Those at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, were burnt in a fire which consumed two-thirds of the town.

• 1678: Bacon’s chambers, says Mr. Pearce, were in No. 1, Coney Court, which formerly stood on the site of the present row of buildings at the west side of Gray’s Inn Square, adjoining the gardens. The whole of Coney Court was burnt down by a fire which occurred in the Inn.

• 1684 Bacon’s Chambers at Gray’s Inn, after Meautys took possession of them, burnt to the ground turning all manuscripts to ash.

• 1731 Cottonian Library caught fire turning manuscripts to ashes.

• 1780 Northumberland House burns manuscripts to ash.

The manufacture of paper was still carried on with so little success in England, that the deficiency of that indispensable fabric was imported from the continent, and principally from France.

The value of the paper annually made in Great Britain was estimated at 780,000 pounds.

Papyrus, which was generally supposed to have become obsolete, was cultivated as a rare plant in the royal gardens at Kew, and in the Royal Society's garden, London, as well as in some private gardens in England.

Who knows how many Shakespearean works have been forged under the production of this Papyrus above-mentioned in the Victorian times.

Pott’s visit to Stratford in 1888 is of interest:

When we visited Stratford-on-Avon, five years ago, we were fortunate enough to do so under the guidance of the President of the Birmingham Shakespeare Society and of the Vicar.

Said our chief conductor: “Now you are to see one of our great treasures, an undoubted portrait of William Shakespeare. It came from the house of his elder daughter, Susanna, who married in 1607, Dr. John Hall, the medical practitioner of the town.” Three thousand pounds, we were told, had been paid for the picture, “Yes,” (we were further told) “and a much higher price would have been demanded, had we been certain that this was a portrait of the poet. But that was not really ascertained until, under the hands of the cleaner, the disguising beard was removed, revealing the clean-shaven face of the actor.” “What!” I said, “a beard, painted over the portrait! Whyso?” I exclaimed. “Well, you see,” was the reply, “Susannah had married above her station; for although in those days doctors had no position in society, yet they were far above actors, and in puritan times when the stage was in such a state of degradation, no respectable married woman would wish to have a portrait of her father, as an actor hanging in her house.”

History furnishes no parallel to the imposition that prevails in and around Stratford; a whole community devoting itself more than four hundred years to every kind of deception and fraud for commercial purposes in the name of a poet; whilst a nation of thirty million of people, admittedly one of the most intelligent and high-minded in the world, looks on and approves. Under these circumstances we may even forgive Count Leo Tolstoy for his failure to worship the Stratford false god.