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The History of Paper
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 29athrowaway 6y agoWax tablets were also a writing surface, and are worth mentioning. > It was from Morocco that paper spread into Europe, via the Iberian penisula, in the 11th century. Also known as Al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain. Perhaps the most influential force in the history of Europe. The ones that brought paper, philosophical and scientific literature, the scientific method, higher education, secularism, free trade, their architecture, etc. At the time they were the torchbearers of knowledge.
- felipemnoa 6y ago>>Wax tablets were also a writing surface, and are worth mentioning. Not paper
- 29athrowaway 6y agoParchments were also not paper and they're mentioned in the article. Parchments are leather.
- keiferski 6y agoI was reading In Praise of Shadows (1933) by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki recently, and his comments on paper made me want to go out and buy some vellum or other expensive paper to use for mundane, everyday notes and to-do lists. Paper, I understand, was invented by the Chinese; but Western paper is to us no more than something to be used, while the texture of Chinese paper and Japanese paper gives us a certain feeling of warmth, of calm and repose. Even the same white could as well be one color for Western paper and another for our own. Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree. It's a really good essay, I highly recommend reading it if you have any interest in architecture, art, or the differences between traditional Japanese culture and the (circa 1933) West. https://misfitsarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/In-Praise-of-Shadows-Junichiro-Tanizaki.pdf https://misfitsarchitecture.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/I... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows
- justincormack 6y agoA good art shop will have a nice selection of hand made papers, including Japanese ones.
- Multicomp 6y agoI can't speak to whether this is the paper referenced above, but a Hobonichi Techo planner using Tomoe River Paper is amazing in how thin it is, yet it resists ghosting (ink showthrough) like a champion. I do wish you could get good Japanese paper in hardbound journals, something like Vela Sciences, but with Japanese paper.
- agumonkey 6y agoIt's interesting, with time I became much more sensitive to this kind of subtlety. Maybe the industrial output of cheap products wears your brain after a while and you seek rarer but better ways.
- bigpumpkin 6y agoHere's a chart of the historical real price of books in England which showed that paper decreased the cost of books by a factor of 2. https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RealPrice-1024x768.png https://aiimpacts.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/RealPrice-1... Then later the printing press decreased the price by another order of magnitude.
- Isamu 6y agoWhat a great graph! That is very enlightening, thank you for sharing.