Forty Centuries of Ink Part 30

We learn from another source that the great not only procured books by purchase, but employed transcribers to make them for their libraries. The ma.n.u.script expense account of Sir John Howard, afterwards Duke of Norfolk, shows in 1467, Thomas Lympnor, that is Thomas the Limner of Bury, was paid the sum of fifty shillings and two pence for a book which he had transcribed and ornamented, including the vellum and binding. The limner's bill is made up of a number of items, "for whole vignettes, and half-vignettes, and capital letters, and flourishing and plain writing."

These transcribers and limners worked princ.i.p.ally upon parchment and vellum, for the use of paper was by no means extensive until the invention of the art of printing. Some of the old ma.n.u.scripts contain drawings representing a copier or transcriber at work, where the monk is represented as provided with a singular and tolerably complete set of apparatus to aid him in his work. The desk for containing the sheet or skin on which he is writing, the clasp to keep this sheet flat, the inkstand, the pen, and the knife, the ma.n.u.script from which the copy is being made, the desk for containing that ma.n.u.script, and the weight for keeping it in its place,--all are shown, with a clearness which, despite of bad perspective, renders them quite intelligible.

Of the two substances, parchment and vellum, before the invention of paper, another word or two may be said. Parchment is made from the skin of sheep or lambs; vellum, from that of very young calves (sometimes unborn ones), but the process of preparing is pretty much the same in both cases. When the hair or wool has been removed, the skin is steeped in lime water, and then stretched on a square frame in a light manner. While so stretched, it is sc.r.a.ped on the flesh side with a blunt iron, wetted with a moist rag, covered with pounded chalk, and rubbed well with pumice stone. After a time, these operations are repeated, but without the use of chalk; the skin is then turned, and sc.r.a.ped on the hair side once only; the flesh side is then sc.r.a.ped once more, and again rubbed over with chalk, which is brushed off with a piece of lambskin retaining the wool. All this is done by the skinner, who allows the skin to dry on a frame, and then cuts it out and sends it to the parchment maker, who repeats the operation with a sharper tool, using a sack stuffed with flocks (wool or hair) to lay the skin upon, instead of stretching it on a frame.

Respecting the quality, value, and preparation of parchment in past ages, it is stated in the "Penny Cyclopaedia" that parchment from the seventh to the tenth century was "white and good, and at the earliest of these periods it appears to have nearly superseded papyrus, which was brittle and more perishable. A very few books of the seventh century have leaves of parchment and papyrus mixed, that the former costly material might strengthen and support the friable paper. About the eleventh century it grew worse, and a dirty colored parchment is evidence of a want of antiquity. This may possibly arise from the circ.u.mstances that writers of this time prepared their own parchment, and they were probably not so skilled as manufacturers. A curious pa.s.sage from a sermon of Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, who was born in 1054, is a voucher for this fact. The sermon is on the "Book of Life," which he recommends his hearers to obtain:

'Do you know what a writer does? He first cleanses his parchment from the grease, and takes off the princ.i.p.al part of the dirt; then he entirely rubs off the hair and fibres with pumice stone; if he did not do so, the letters written upon it would not be good, nor would they last long. He then rules lines that the writing may be straight. All these things you ought to do, if you wish to possess the book which I have been displaying to you.'

At this time parchment was a very costly material.

We find it mentioned that Gui, Count of Nevers, having sent a valuable present of plate to the Chartreux of Paris, the unostentatious monks returned it with a request that he would send them parchment instead."

CHAPTER x.x.x.

MODERN INK BACKGROUNDS (TRUE PAPER).

WHEN IT WAS THAT TRUE PAPER WAS INVENTED--CITATIONS FROM MUNSELL ABOUT CHINESE AND OTHER ANCIENT PAPER--A SHORT CHRONOLOGY FROM THE SAME AUTHOR--LINEN PAPER IN USE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY--BOMBYCINE PAPER--DEVELOPMENTS OF THE MICROSCOPE--METHODS EMPLOYED IN ASCERTAINING ORIGIN OF LINEN PAPER BY MEERMAN--SOME OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO THE EVOLUTION OF PAPER --RAPID IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY AFTER INVENTION OF PRINTING--CURIOUS CUSTOMS IN THE USE OF THE WATER MARK--NO DISTINCTIONS IN QUALITY OF PAPER USED FOR MSS. OR OTHER BOOKS--ANECDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE WATER MARK--ITS VALUE IN DETECTING FRAUDS--INTERESTING ANECDOTE OF ITS USE IN FABRICATING A FRAUD--FULLER'S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE PAPERS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES--WHEN THE FIRST PAPER MILL WAS ESTABLISHED IN EUROPE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF LINEN PAPER--DATE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FIRST PAPER MILL IN AMERICA--WHO FIRST SUGGESTED WOOD AS A MATERIAL FOR MAKING PAPER--SOME NAMES OF AUTHORS ON THE SUBJECT OF PAPER--STORY OF RAG PAPER INSTRUCTIVE AS WELL AS INTERESTING.

WHEN it was that the great change occurred and true paper made of fibrous matter or rags reduced to a pulp in water was invented has been a subject of considerable thought and investigation. Munsell, in his "Chronology of Paper and Paper-Making," credits it to the Chinese, and estimates its date to be included in the first century of the Christian era. He observes:

"The Chinese paper is commonly supposed to be made of silk; but this is a mistake. Silk by itself cannot be reduced to a pulp suitable for making paper. Refuse silk is said to be occasionally used with other ingredients, but the greater part of the Chinese paper is made from the inner bark of the bamboo and mulberry tree, called by them the paper tree, hempen rags, etc. The latter are prepared for paper by being cut and well washed in tanks. They are then bleached and dried; in twelve days they are converted into a pulp, which is then made into b.a.l.l.s of about four pounds weight. These are afterwards saturated with water, and made into paper on a frame of fine reeds; and are dried by being pressed under large stones. A second drying operation is performed by plastering the sheets on the walls of a room.

The sheets are then coated with gum size, and polished with stones. They also make paper from cotton and linen rags, and a coa.r.s.e yellow sort from rice straw, which is used for wrapping. They are enabled to make sheets of a large size, the mould on which the pulp is made into paper being sometimes ten or twelve feet long and very wide, and managed by means of Pulleys.

"The j.a.panese prepare paper from the mulberry as follows: in the month of December the twigs are cut into lengths not exceeding thirty inches and put together in bundles. These f.a.gots are then placed upright in a large vessel containing alkaline ley, and boiled till the bark shrinks so as to allow about a half an inch of the wood to appear free at the top. After they are thus boiled they are exposed to a cool atmosphere, and laid away for future use. When a sufficient quant.i.ty has been thus collected, it is soaked in water three or four days, when a blackish skin which covered it is sc.r.a.ped off. At the same time also the stronger bark which is of a full year's growth is separated from the thinner, which covered the younger branches, and which yields the best and whitest paper. After it has been sufficiently cleansed out and separated, it must be boiled in clear ley, and if stirred frequently it soon becomes of a suitable nature.

"It is then washed, a process requiring much attention and great skill and judgment; for if it be not washed long enough, although strong and of good body, will be coa.r.s.e and of little value; if washed too long it will afford a white paper, but will be spongy and unfit for writing upon. Having been washed until it becomes a soft and woolly pulp, it is spread upon a table and beat fine with a mallet. It is then put into a tub with an infusion of rice and breni root, when the whole is stirred until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed in a ma.s.s of proper consistence. The moulds on which sheets are formed are made of reeds cut into narrow strips instead of wire, and the process of dipping is like that of other countries. After being allowed to remain a short time in heaps under a slight pressure, the sheets are exposed to the sun, by which they are properly dried.

"The Arabians in the seventh century appear to have either discovered or to have learned from the Chinese or Hindoos, quite likely from the latter, the art of making paper from cotton; for it is known that a manufactory of such paper was established at Samarcand about the year 706 A. D, The Arabians seem to have carried the art to Spain, and to have there made paper from linen and hemp as well as from cotton.

"The art of manufacturing paper from cotton is supposed to have found its way into Europe in the eleventh century. The first paper of that kind was made of raw cotton; but its manufacture was by the Arabians extended to old worn-out cotton, and even to the smallest pieces it is said. But as there are cotton plants of various kinds, it was natural that they should produce papers of different qualities; and it was impossible to unite their woolly particles so firmly as to form a strong substantial paper, for want of sufficient skill and proper machinery, using as they did mortars and rude horse-mills. The Greeks, it is said, made use of cotton paper before the Latins. It came into Germany through Venice and was called Greek parchment.

"The Moors, who were the paper-makers of Spain, having been expelled by the Spaniards, the latter, acquainted with water mills, improved the manufacture so as to produce a paper from cotton nearly equal to that made of linen rags."

A chronology of paper relating to the earliest specimens of them can also be found in Munsell's work on that subject; several are here cited:

"A. D. 704. The Arabians are supposed to have acquired the knowledge of making paper of cotton, by their conquests in Tartary.

"A. D. 706. Casiri, a Spanish author, attributes the invention of cotton paper to Joseph Amru, in this year, at Mecca; but it is well known that the Chinese and Persians were acquainted with its manufacture before this period.

"A. D. 900. The bulls of the popes in the eighth and ninth centuries were written upon cotton paper.

"A. D. 900. Montfaucon, who on account of his diligence and the extent of his researches is great authority, wrote a dissertation to prove that charta bombycine, cotton paper, was discovered in the empire of the east toward the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century.

"A. D. 1007. The plenarium, or inventory, of the treasure of the church of Sandersheim, is written upon paper of cotton, bearing this date.

"A. D. 1049. The oldest ma.n.u.script in England written upon cotton paper, is in the Bodleian collection of the British Museum, having this date.

"A. D. 1050. The most ancient ma.n.u.script on cotton paper, that has been discovered in the Royal Library at Paris having a date, bears record of this year.

"A. D. 1085. The Christian successors of Moorish paper-makers at Toledo in Spain, worked the paper-mills to better advantage than their predecessors.

Instead of manufacturing paper of raw cotton, which is easily recognized by its yellowness and brittleness, they made it of rags, in moulds through which the water ran off; for this reason it was called parchment cloth.

"A. D. 1100. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates, in Arabia, the ma.n.u.script of which bears this date, has been p.r.o.nounced the oldest specimen of linen paper that has come to light.

"A. D. 1100. Arabic ma.n.u.scripts were at this time written on satin paper, and embellished with a quant.i.ty of ornamental work, painted in such gay and resplendent colors that the reader might behold his face reflected as if from a mirror.

"A. D. 1100. There was a diploma of Roger, king of Sicily, dated 1145, in which be says that he had renewed on parchment a charter that had been written on cotton paper in 1100.

"A. D. 1102. The king of Sicily appears to have accorded a diploma to an ancient family of paper-makers who had established a manufactory in that island, where cotton was indigenous, and this has been thought to point to the origin of cotton paper, quite erroneously.

"A. D. 1120. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clum, who flourished about this time, declared that paper from linen rags was in use in his day.

"A. D. 1150. Edrisi, who wrote at this time, tells us that the paper made at Xativa, an ancient city of Valencia, was excellent, and was exported to countries east and west.

"A. D. 1151. An Arabian author certifies that very fine white cotton paper was manufactured in Spain, and Cacim aben Hegi a.s.sures us that the best was made at Xativa. The Spaniards being acquainted with water-mills, improved upon the Moorish method of grinding the raw cotton and rags; and by stamping the latter in the mill, they produced a better pulp than from raw cotton, by which various sorts of paper were manufactured, nearly equal to those made from linen rags.

"A. D. 1153. Petrus Mauritius (the Abbi de Cluni), who died in this year, has the following pa.s.sage on paper in his Treatise against the Jews; 'The books we read every day are made of sheep, goat, or calf skin; or of rags (ex rasauris veterum pannorum),' supposed to allude to modern paper.

"A. D. 1178. A treaty of peace between the kings of Aragon and Castile is the oldest specimen of linen paper used in Spain with a date. It is supposed that the Moors, on their settlement in Spain, where cotton was scarce, made paper of hemp and flax. The inventor of linen-rag paper, whoever he was, is ent.i.tled to the grat.i.tude of posterity.

"A. D. 1200. Casiri positively affirms that there are ma.n.u.scripts in the Escurial palace near Madrid, upon both cotton and hemp paper, written prior to this time."

Abdollatiph, an Arabian physician, who visited Egypt in 1200, says that the linen mummy-cloths were habitually used to make wrapping paper for the shopkeepers.

A doc.u.ment with the seals preserved dated A. D.

1239 and signed by Adolphus, count of Schaumburg is written on linen paper. It is preserved in the university of Rinteln, Germany, and establishes the fact that linen paper was already in use in Germany.

Specimens of flax paper and still extant are quite numerous, a very few of them having dates included in the eighth and ninth centuries.

The charta Damascena, so-called from the fact of its manufacture in the city of Damascus, was in use in the eighth century. Many Arabian MSS. on such a paper exist dating from the ninth century.

The charta bombycina (bombyx, a silk and cotton paper) was much employed during mediaeval periods.

The microscope, however, has demonstrated conclusively many things formerly in doubt and relating particularly to the matter of the character of fibre used in paper-making. One of the most important is the now established fact that there is no difference between the fibres of the old cotton and linen papers, as made from rags so named.

To ascertain the precise period and the particular nation of Europe, when and among whom the use of our common paper fabricated from linen rags first originated, was a very earnest object of research with the learned Meerman, author of a now exceedingly rare work on this subject and published in 1767.

His mode of inquiry was unique. He proposed a reward of twenty-five golden ducats, to whoever should discover what on due examination should appear to be the most ancient ma.n.u.script or public doc.u.ment inscribed on paper manufactured from linen rags. This proposal was distributed through all parts of Europe. His little volume contains the replies which Meerman received. The scholars who remitted the result of their investigations were unable to distinguish between what they estimated as cotton or linen rags. They did, however, establish the fact that paper made of linen rags existed before 1308, and some of them even sought to give the honor of the invention to Germany. They also a.s.serted that the most ancient English specimen of such a paper belonged to the year 1342.

The transformation of paper made from every conceivable fibrous material into what is commonly known as "linen" or true paper was of slow growth until after the invention of printing. Following that great event it is surprising, how, in so short a period, the manufacturers of paper improved its quality and the degree of excellence which it later attained.

They imitated the old vellum so closely that it was even called vellum and is so known to this day.

This cla.s.s of paper was employed both for writing and printing purposes and has never been excelled, surpa.s.sing any like productions of modern times.

A curious custom came into vogue during the early infancy of the "linen" paper industry, which is of so much interest and possesses so curious a history as to be well worth mentioning. It is the water mark as it is commonly but erroneously termed in connection with paper manufacture.

Its origin dates back to the thirteenth century, though the monuments indicating its use before the time of printing are but few in number.