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Show 10 OLDPAPERMAKIN the Low Countries, probably having been bough at the great market at Bruges. The paper had rough and furrowed surface, apparently havin received but slight pressing after being taken fro the drying.loft of the mill. It is not unusual to fin hairs imbedded in old paper from the couchingfelts, or small stones and pieces of wood which escaped through the crude filters during the washing or stamping processes Some idea of the cost of paper in the fifteent century may be gleaned from the prices paid b the directorsof the Ripoli pressat Florence, betwee 1474and1483. An original cost-book of this establishment is preserved in the Biblioteca Nazional at Florence. This book shows that the nine size or qualities of paper that were then in use woul have varied in price from about two dollars a rea for the lesser size or quality to about six dollars ream for the Bologna paper in common folio Zanetta quotes a document dated 1483, whic states the price of paper in Florence to have been a that time, for "Carta reale, quaderni so... 3lir. 6 sol 8d;" and for "Carta da scrivereil quaderno...18sol. The oldest bill that is recorded showing the pric of paper is one dated 1352 and reads: "To Georg Cosyn, for one quartern of royal paper, to mak painters' patterns, 10d." According to this, a quir of royal paper in 13572 sold for about one-third les than it fetched in the year 1483. In the contrac F Diital image© 2004 Mariot Libary, Universty o Uta. All right reserved |