Paper in Medieval England
From Pulp to Fictions

Explains the methods and knowledge to understand how and why paper was used in medieval writing and beyond.

Orietta Da Rold (Author)

9781108840576, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 October 2020

280 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.58 kg

'This is the great merit of Da Rold's book: it is a truly interdisciplinary study of paper in medieval England.' Joan A. Holladay, Manuscript Studies

Orietta Da Rold provides a detailed analysis of the coming of paper to medieval England, and its influence on the literary and non-literary culture of the period. Looking beyond book production, Da Rold maps out the uses of paper and explains the success of this technology in medieval culture, considering how people interacted with it and how it affected their lives. Offering a nuanced understanding of how affordance influenced societal choices, Paper in Medieval England draws on a multilingual array of sources to investigate how paper circulated, was written upon, and was deployed by people across medieval society, from kings to merchants, to bishops, to clerks and to poets, contributing to an understanding of how medieval paper changed communication and shaped modernity.

Paper and culture in medieval England: an introduction
1. Paper stories
2. The economics of paper
3. Writing on paper
4. The character of paper and its use in medieval books
5. Paper in the medieval literary imagination
6. Epilogue: the age of paper.

Subject Areas: Printing & reprographic technology [TDPP], Pulp & paper technology [TDJP], Printing, packaging & reprographic industry [KNTR], Publishing industry & book trade [KNTP], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]