Read on Twitter
Using papers in early modern Europe. #paperhistory #bookhistory
What do we see on this painting from around 1500?
A thread.
1/ https://twitter.com/Teszelszky/status/1354431948685529096
What do we see on this painting from around 1500?
A thread.
1/ https://twitter.com/Teszelszky/status/1354431948685529096
To start with, this painting is aiming to shed light on the usual administration practices in early modern Europe. By at least the fifteenth century, paper became a good and steadily selling product in Europe. Paper was used for many purposes: administration was one of them.
2/
2/
Let's start with the details. Fresh writing and printing papers were constantly needed. Quickly-expanding paper usages in archiving, administrating, communicating, and wrapping activities were the reasons for this. Purchasing fresh, unused, paper sheets was important.
3/
3/
Evidence suggests that writing and printing paper was sold as single-sheets, in units of 5 sheets, in units of 24/25 sheets, but the most common trade unit in early modern Europe was the ream – of about 500 sheets of printing paper or 480 sheets of writing paper each.
4/
4/
Old papers, i.e. used paper sheets not needed anymore, were a resource worthy to collect. As paper was made from linen rags, these materials were re-used again, often sold to paper traders and then to paper mill owners. It was a circular dynamic.
5/
5/
Accounting, keeping records etc. The usages of paper as the most important and common material to be written upon (e.g. to produce a new administration record), are interpreted as a “paper revolution”. Information handling becomes popular. Inky paper states are born.
6/
6/
What else do we see? Let's focus on the table, a secretary working space for managing information and communication on paper. It is the epoch’s formation of bureaucracies and the practice of record-keeping that led to the birth of (paper) archives.
7/
7/
The material story of administrative work included knives, the handling of bound books, and of loose papers (like letters). Reading and processing information from other paper sources into new paper formats was a thing.Keeping track in a paper age was managing the paper flows.
8/
8/
