THE HISTORY OF PAPER IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
TERESA RICE

There is some dispute about how papermaking made its way into Europe. Both Spain and Italy claim the right of being the first in Europe to manufacture paper.¹¹ Although early examples of materials made from paper such as manuscripts are found in Europe, it is not clear if the paper itself was actually made in Europe or if the Arabs imported it into Europe.¹² However difficult it is to ascertain exactly when the first paper was actually produced in Europe, it is commonly attributed that it is due to the Moors capturing Spain in the 12th century that a papermaking industry first flourished in Europe.¹³ Although paper was being manufactured in Italy and Spain, paper mills were slow to spread across Europe. The first mills begin to appear in France, Germany, and Austria, but paper is relegated as an inferior product and production is blocked by jealous guilds that guard their own interest in writing materials made of parchment and vellum.¹⁴

The primary materials used in Europe for writing substances were parchment and vellum.¹⁵ Parchment is made from sheepskin. Vellum is made from calfskin. Both were consider superior products to the paper of the age. The Church connected paper with Moslems, thus creating negative association to paper. Religious orders, namely monasteries, which did the majority of reading and writing in Europe during this period, roughly 12th – 15th centuries, found paper to be of low quality and lacking durability. European rulers also mistrusted the quality of paper. Roger, King of Sicily, from 1145 had a charter that was written on cotton paper renewed on parchment.¹⁶ Frederic II of Germany nullified all public acts written on cotton paper and allowed two years for them to be copied onto parchment.¹⁷ Another reason for the slow use of paper was that it was more expensive to manufacture at the time than parchment.¹⁸

Ulman Stromer at Nuremberg, Germany established the most famously known European paper mill in 1390.¹⁹ He hired his workers from Italy and compelled them to sign an oath of secrecy so that he could maintain a monopoly on papermaking.²⁰ His diary is the first work ever published on papermaking and contains one of the first reports of a labor dispute.²¹ Nuremberg paper mill is also the first mill to ever have its likeness captured in a published book, Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle.²² Paper mills slowly followed in the Netherlands (1428), Switzerland (1453), and finally England (1495).²³ Papermaking was not introduced into the United States (then colonies) until 1690 when the first paper mill was built in Germantown, PA.²⁴

¹¹ Blum, Andre. On the Origin of Paper. Translated by Harry Miller Lydenberg. New York: R. R. Bowker Company, 1934, 22.

¹² Blum, 24.

¹³ Papermaking: Art and Craft, 18.

¹⁴ Weaver, Alexander. Paper, Wasps and Packages: The Romantic Story of Paper and Its Influence on the Course of History. Chicago: Container Corporation of America, 1937: 24-25.

¹⁵ Hunter, Dard. Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, 14-15.

¹⁶ Munsell, Joel. Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Paper-Making. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1980: 19.

¹⁷ Munsell, 21.

¹⁸ Blum, 34.

¹⁹ Papermaking: Art and Craft, 20-21.

²⁰ Weaver, 25.

²¹ Munsell, 25.

²² Papermaking: Art and Craft, 23.

²³ Papermaking: Art and Craft, 23-24.

²⁴ Anderson, Sven A. "Trends in the Pulp and Paper Industry." Economic Geography. (April 1942): 195.

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