Paper (which is completely different from papyrus) was invented in China by the second century Bc, but did not reach Europe until a thousand years later. Its secret remained undiscovered for another four hundred years after that, and paper was not made in Europe until the twelfth century.
Above, A late-eighteenth- century painting showing the manufacture of paper. The large vat contains a watery solution of disintegrated fibres. A mold (with mesh screen, similar to the one resting on the side, at left) is being lifted from the vat and drained. The remaining layer of sediment will be dried and peeled away as a sheet of paper. The piles of paper sheets resulting from this process are at the right, resting on planks over the vat. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London.) |
| The oldest surviving piece of paper in the world was discovered by
archeologists in 1957 in a tomb near Sian in Shensi Province, China. It is
about 10 cm square and can be dated precisely between the years 140 and 87
Bc. This paper and similar bits of paper surviving from the next century
are thick, coarse, and uneven in their texture. They are all made of pounded
and disintegrated hemp fibers. From the drying marks on them, it is evident
that they were dried primitively on mats woven as pieces of fabric, not on
what we know as paper molds.
The first manufacture of paper in Europe dates from the twelfth century, and it was not until the thirteenth century that an Italian paper industry could be said to be in full swing. This is fifteen hundred years after its invention in China. |