Paper as a cheap writing surface
A cheap writing surface made from plant fibre and rags, unlike parchment, which is cut from animal skins. From China the craft spread through Central Asia and the Islamic lands, where both the copying of books and the work of chanceries rested on paper; it reached Europe first as a commodity through Italian ports, then as local manufacture (Xativa about 1151, Fabriano in 1276).
A cheap surface by itself yields neither science nor printing, but without it an edition is unthinkable: one large 8th-century Bible took 515 calf skins, while most of the run of the Gutenberg Bible (at least 120 copies against perhaps 40 on vellum) was printed on paper.
The pretty story of Chinese prisoners supposedly bringing the craft to Samarkand after the battle of Talas in 751 is not trusted by present-day historians.
Why this date
approximate. The year 105, when the court eunuch Cai Lun reported the making of paper to Emperor He; the report is preserved in the Hou Han Shu. The date is a convention: finds of paper fragments in northern and northwestern China push the appearance of paper back by roughly two hundred years, so Cai Lun is better described as having consolidated and improved an existing craft than as having invented it. The craft then moved west: Samarkand and the Islamic lands, then Europe, where paper first arrives as a commodity through Italian ports from the 12th century, while local mills work at Xativa from 1151 and at Fabriano from 1276.
What grew out of it
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Movable-type printing press
prerequisite for · Confidence: high
Printing an edition from movable type physically requires a cheap and uniform surface: parchment will not serve, one large 8th century Bible took 515 calf skins, and almost the whole run of the Gutenberg Bible was printed on paper rather than on parchment.
Dispute: There is no dispute about the link itself, only about the count of the print run: Cornell gives 165 paper and 35 parchment copies, the Library of Congress 145 paper and 35 parchment. The proportion is the same either way: parchment went into a handful of presentation copies, while the ordinary book was made of paper.
Link sources
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
the three elements necessary for printing: (1) paper, the techniques for the manufacture of which they had known for several decades; (2) ink...and (3) surfaces bearing texts carved in relief
- «How many cows were needed to make medieval Bibles?», Encyclopaedia Britannica, One Good Fact Verified 20 Sep 2026
One large Bible made in the 8th century required 515 calf skins.
- «Gutenberg Bible», Cornell University Library Verified 20 Sep 2026
It is thought that Gutenberg printed 165 copies on paper and thirty-five copies on parchment.
- «The Gutenberg Bible», Library of Congress
Of these, 145 were done on paper.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026
Paper first penetrated Europe as a commodity from the 12th century onward through Italian ports that had active commercial relations with the Arab world.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong. "Assembled from fragments" means the words do not stand together on the page: we found each fragment separately and joined them with an ellipsis.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
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Papermaking in Europe: Xàtiva and Fabriano
prerequisite for · Confidence: high
The Chinese craft of paper passed to the Arabs, and from them to the Christians of Spain, from where Europe began making paper itself.
Link sources
- Carter T. F. «The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward», New York: Columbia University Press, 1925, p. 100 (1925), 100 Verified 4 Oct 2026
For the next five hundred years paper making in the West was an Arab monopoly till the Arabs in turn taught their Christian conquerors in Spain, and Christendom made ready to take the lead.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Carter T. F. «The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward», New York: Columbia University Press, 1925, p. 100 (1925), 100 Verified 4 Oct 2026
Node sources
- «The Invention of Paper in China», HistoryofInformation.com Verified 20 Sep 2026
In 105 CE Cai Lun, a eunuch and official of the Chinese Imperial Court, reported to the Emperor of China that paper had been invented.
- https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=152 Verified 20 Sep 2026
Twentieth century discoveries of ancient paper fragments in North and Northwest China have pushed the date of the invention of paper back about two hundred years earlier.
- Field D. «Papermaking on the Silk Road: Samarkand and Beyond», Hand Papermaking Magazine 29, no. 1 (2014) Verified 20 Sep 2026
There is wide agreement among scholars that there was not one great transmission but rather a gradual infiltration of knowledge over several centuries.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026
Paper, the production of which was known only to the Chinese, followed the caravan routes of Central Asia to the markets at Samarkand, whence it was distributed as a commodity across the entire Arab world.
- «Printing: History of printing», Encyclopaedia Britannica Verified 24 Sep 2026
Paper first penetrated Europe as a commodity from the 12th century onward through Italian ports that had active commercial relations with the Arab world.
- «Papermills», Papermaking in Europe and America, Vanderbilt University Libraries Verified 20 Sep 2026
Papermills in Xativa, Spain (1151) and Fabriano, Italy, (1276) were the first to be built in Europe
- «How many cows were needed to make medieval Bibles?», Encyclopaedia Britannica, One Good Fact Verified 20 Sep 2026
One large Bible made in the 8th century required 515 calf skins.
- Princeton University Library, Scheide Library, «The Gutenberg Bible» Verified 20 Sep 2026
Eleven quires into production, the printers increased the edition size, reprinting those quires to arrive at a final total of at least 120 paper and perhaps 40 vellum copies.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.