Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 1Hallam, Henry
History
Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. 1
Hallam, Henry
Literature, Modern -- History and criticism
[110] Casiri, N. 787. Codex anno Christi 1100, chartaceus, &c.
|Known to Peter of Clugni.|
61. The authority of Casiri must confirm beyond doubt a passage in Peter
Abbot of Clugni, which has perplexed those who place the invention of
linen paper very low. In a treatise against the Jews, he speaks of
books, ex pellibus arietum, hircorum, vel vitulorum, sive ex biblis vel
juncis Orientalium paludum, aut ex _rasuris veterum pannorum_, seu
ex aliâ qualibet, forte viliore materia compactos. A late English writer
contends that nothing can be meant by the last words, “unless that all
sorts of inferior substances capable of being so applied, among them,
perhaps, hemp and the remains of cordage, were used at this period in
the manufacture of paper.”[111] It certainly at least seems reasonable
to interpret the words “ex rasuris veterum pannorum,” of linen rags; and
when I add that Peter Cluniacensis passed a considerable time in Spain
about 1141, there can remain, it seems, no rational doubt that the
Saracens of the peninsula were acquainted with that species of paper,
though perhaps it was as yet unknown in every other country.
[111] See a memoir on an ancient manuscript of Aratus, by Mr. Ottley,
in Archæeologia, vol. xxvi.
|And in 12th and 13th centuries.|
62. Andrès asserts, on the authority of the Memoirs of the Academy of
Barcelona, that a treaty between the kings of Arragon and Castile,
bearing the date of 1178, and written upon linen paper, is extant in the
archives of that city.[112] He alleges several other instances in the
next age; when Mabillon, who denies that paper of linen was then used in
charters, which, indeed, no one is likely to maintain, mentions, as the
earliest specimen he had seen in France, a letter of Joinville to St.
Louis, which must be older than 1270. Andrès refers the invention to the
Saracens of Spain, using the fine flax of Valencia and Murcia; and
conjectures that it was brought into use among the Spaniards themselves
by Alfonso of Castile.[113]
[112] Vol. ii. p. 73. Andrès has gone much at length into this subject,
and has collected several important passages which do not appear in
my text. The letter of Joinville has been supposed to be addressed
to Louis Hutin in 1314, but this seems inconsistent with the
writer’s age.
[113] Id. p. 84. He cannot mean that it was never employed before
Alfonso’s time, of which he has already given instances.
|Paper of mixed materials.|
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