Paper: A Common Ground
Selections from an Exhibition

JANE RODGERS SIEGEL

"Paper: A Common Ground" was an exhibition that traced the
history of papermaking from its origins in China to the modem
revival of hand papermaking. The craft of hand papermaking and
the technology of machine fabrication were illustrated by a variety
of sources, and many forms of writing material, both paper and
non-paper, were on view. Below is a selection from the exhibition
providing an overview of western hand papermaking.
 

Paper has been made and used for close to two thousand
years in China, and for a mere seven himdred years or so
in Europe. Techniques changed slowly but dramatically
until the revolutionary invention of papermaking machines in the
early 1800s.

An increase in population and the revival of commerce in the
thirteenth century made western, capital-intensive papermaking
possible and necessary. The growth of universities and the rise of a
secular book trade also contributed to the demand for paper. But
nothing affected the trade as much as the invention of printing
from moveable types. Gutenberg's famous 42-line Bible was
printed in an edition of about 145 copies on paper and only a few
on vellum. Printing required an inexpensive, easily available mate¬
rial, and parchment could not be produced in the quantities
required by the burgeoning printing trade. The story of paper in
the five centuries since the invention of printing has been one of
finding easier, cheaper ways to make paper to meet the ever-
increasing demand for it.

What Is Paper?

True paper is a sheet made of cellulose fiber (from mulberry,
flax, cotton, wood, or other substances) that has been beaten and
macerated in water until the fibers separate, then is lifted from the
 

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