Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #PaperHistory
Most recents (10)
Among the many reusages of paper in early modern Europe was certainly rereading letters. A short thread - using a 1780s painting from Marguerite Gérard - for those interested in #paperhistory and #bookhistory:
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Let's start the look at rereading (and paper storing) practices of rich Europeans with details on the painting used. You see Marguerite Gérard's painting from c. 1785, nowadays in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Neue Pinakothek München, sammlung.pinakothek.de/de/artwork/ApL…
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Important paper letters were stored in tiny boxes - for rereading aloud and silently, alone and in company.
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There is a paper story included into this famous German painting of 1830s from Carl Spitzweg. You may know the common interpretation of the Poor Poet (German: Der arme Poet): Attention to the material misery of most artists and their work!
Let's start a #paperhistory thread.
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Let's start a #paperhistory thread.
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The painting came in three versions and the one remaining copy is nowadays in the Neue Pinakothek (Munich: pinakothek.de/kunst/meisterw…). Let's focus on the paper used and present in this imagined scene of a poor poet in his attic room in the 1830s.
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Easy to spot in the room are a few big bound books. They may be bound in leather but they are printed upon paper, very likely before 1800. These are used books, old books, second hand books. Nota bene: The German antiquarian book trade developed in these days, #bookhistory.
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A scene of paper management and usages: an European early modern tax office was full of papers. Fresh paper sheets, old paper sheets, printed papers, handwritten papers, waste papers, etc. Let's have a deeper look, #paperhistory. A next thread,
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Managing information became a paper business in Early Modern Europe. The expanding administration practices made secretaries, lawyer's offices, tax offices, etc. And they ran on paper, had to store paper, and deal with paper. It was a paper world.
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Let's focus on the details. This painted mocking scene is rich of details for #bookhistory and #paperhistory. So many paper usages imagined here.
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What you see is a painted impression of the physical circumstances of an European artist in the early nineteenth century. Among other details and objects, a lot of paper is present. Let's have a a closer look, #paperhistory and #bookhistory. A thread.
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The painting is titled Léon Pallière (1787–1820) in His Room at the Villa Medici, Rome, and was painted in 1817 on oil. The artist: the French Jean Alaux.
Here is a link to more details: metmuseum.org/art/collection…
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Here is a link to more details: metmuseum.org/art/collection…
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The writing place. A place of various paper usages: a letter on the table, a few bound books, folders filled with loose paper sheets, unbound books, a few sheets of paper in-between. Also: an ink pot, and a writing quill. #paperhistory
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Early Modern Europe was a paper age - a first period of paper usages. Especially managing information became a paper business as the painting "The Lawyer's Office" (1628) from Pieter de Bloot @rijksmuseum t1p.de/1awb highlights. A meta thread for #paperhistory.
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As I have highlighted in earlier threads like this one (), paper was from the fourteenth century onwards increasingly being used for more and more communication flows. Hello inky paper states and letter writing humans, here comes the printing industry.
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The artifact paper became more and more present in Europe, for example in schools as I have shed light on here:
And the demand grew and grew and grew. More paper was used, for writing, for printing, and for wrapping purposes.
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And the demand grew and grew and grew. More paper was used, for writing, for printing, and for wrapping purposes.
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The Notary is a painting of mid-sixteenth century by Marinus van Reymerswaele. What we see is secretary work with paper: record keeping practices, writing, folding, storing.
A thread for #paperhistory and #bookhistory.
#AltePinakothek @Pinakotheken: t1p.de/emor
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A thread for #paperhistory and #bookhistory.
#AltePinakothek @Pinakotheken: t1p.de/emor
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Notaries needed offices in early modern Europe, because they provided paper businesses: they used papers as a general service. In fact, producing evidence in a lawsauit is a paper practice. First things first: writing on paper on a regular basis is the main office work.
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Let's focus on what writing was: a paper using literate practice that required - apart from paper - some more special materials, most importantly ink, an inkhorn, and a quill.
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Why do we call early modern Europe a paper age? Well, let's have a look at the hints given on this painting from early seventeenth-century by Jan Lievens. Source: t1p.de/of6z (Alte Pinakothek, München).
A thread not only for #paperhistory and #bookhistory.
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A thread not only for #paperhistory and #bookhistory.
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Let's start with this instrument, almost hidden, but important for paper usages: the quill. More precisely: the feather quill, often a goose feather prepared for writing. Nota bene: the word 'pen' derives from penna, Latin for feather. No quill, no fun at the secretary.
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Writing letters and records was not only a content managing information battle, it was a material business too. In order to use a quill you needed ink. Your pen/quill would have to be refreshed constantly with ink. This inkwell reminds us of the material conditions of writing.
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Schools in early modern Europe were social spaces of learning and teaching, and above all, paper was present. A thread for #paperhistory and #bookhistory. What you see is an imagined schooling scene from the seventeenth century by Jan Steen.
Source: t1p.de/7e0x
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Source: t1p.de/7e0x
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Let's focus on the details.
It was not too uncommon to have paper broadsides or broadsheets glued to the walls. These printed upon paper products could be used for educational purposes too. The one in the painting seems to be carrying script, printed words. On paper.
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It was not too uncommon to have paper broadsides or broadsheets glued to the walls. These printed upon paper products could be used for educational purposes too. The one in the painting seems to be carrying script, printed words. On paper.
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In the upper right corner of the room we see the usual artifacts of the so-called book industry: a bound book, an unbound book, loose paper sheets in different formats, fresh and used papers. A learned setting and everyday business of dealing with paper and knowledge.
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It is paper time, again.
The painting is from A. M. Wirth made in the late nineteenth century, and is on offer at the moment: auktionshaus-stahl.de/de/artikel/999…
What do we see, and what is worth focusing on? A short thread for #bookhistory and #paperhistory alike.
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The painting is from A. M. Wirth made in the late nineteenth century, and is on offer at the moment: auktionshaus-stahl.de/de/artikel/999…
What do we see, and what is worth focusing on? A short thread for #bookhistory and #paperhistory alike.
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To start with, what is imagined in the painting is a streetselling scene in a nineteenth century urban context. The painting is called "Beim Antiquar", and so we are looking at a second hand trade of an antiquarian. The nineteenth century saw the rise of this trade.
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But first focus on the far right of the painting, almost hidden at the walls: this is glued paper. Likely announcements, advertisements, single-sheet prints, broadsheets and broadsides. Paper being present in urban settings.
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Early modern Europe was a paper age! Let's focus, once more, on the paper usages of a period that mastered so many communication flows on paper. Another thread for #paperhistory #bookhistory
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Let's start with the obvious: people are writing in this painting and in general. The material they are writing on - paper sheets, bound blank books, etc. It is paper letters (and paper envelopes), paper pages in accounting books, in writing books. All on paper.
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Paper was used for many writing purposes. Yes, only a few could write, but many came into contact with paper. In this scene the "paper manager" is a lawyer. The many papers around him are showing the law business as one of the many paper using activities. Inky paper states!
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