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1 results

  • Chapter 3 - Writing on Paper

  • Orietta Da Rold, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Paper in Medieval England
    Published online:
    17 September 2020
    Print publication:
    01 October 2020, pp 94-142

  • Summary

    Chapter 3 considers perceptions of and practices in writing on paper. The famous edict of Frederick II, declaring that paper was banned from his archives, is the initial occasion for this reflection. I then investigate the cultural significance of writing on paper and why paper was adopted in certain writing environments. Armando Petrucci’s proposition that a need to write rather than a need to read drives this process is explored in relation to his other suggestion—that the use of paper was never automatic but was always a choice, either voluntary or constrained by specific economic or social circumstances. The discussion then branches out into palaeographical considerations of cursivity, writing on paper and training. The chapter further considers the role of professional and non-professional hands in medieval literary culture. This reassessment suggests that it is difficult to maintain these boundaries in late medieval manuscript production, in particular for those books written on paper.