The story of how paper made it from China into Europe
Paper was first made in China around the year 105. Though a few early versions of it have been found from past centuries, the invention is generally credited to Cai Lun. He created paper by using tree bark pulp, old rags, and fishnets. Over the course of centuries, this invention would spread all throughout the world.
After its creation, paper spread to the rest of Asia. This new invention traveled down the silk road and had made it to Central Asia by 751. Just a few decades later, the technique of papermaking entered the Islamic world. By the year 793, paper was already being used in Baghdad; and in Turkestan, some Chinese papermakers who were captured in battle were forced to make paper while imprisoned.
Paper was introduced to Europe by the Islamic world. As Muslim armies and merchants traveled deeper into Europe, they brought the invention of paper along with them. By 1275, Italy had established papermaking centers, but this new technology wouldn’t be so easily accepted by the rest of Europe. Western Europeans were wary of the use of paper. It’s likely that they viewed this new technology, which had been brought over by Muslims, as a manifestation of Islamic culture.
Western Europe was so keen on rejecting Islamic culture that in 1221, the Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II declared that paper could not be used for official documents. And thus, Western Europe wouldn’t come to embrace paper for another few centuries.
The general opinion on paper changed in the fifteenth century, with the invention of the printing press. Despite their refusal to use paper, watermills had become widespread in Europe. In the early days of the printing press in Western Europe, they used watermills to pound rags into pulp. After this, they would collect this pulp into a screen mold that they used to create the shape of the paper, and press it firmly. This method was what finally popularized paper all throughout Europe. Once they embraced the use of paper, it became the standarn medium.
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