Thread by @dbellingradt

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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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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When talking about early modern paper books, some of us still get the impression that this talk is about printed books with a binding. More than one example on this painting might lead in this direction. But truth is: these bound books were a minority, only one variation.

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Most printed paper books of the period were unbound, very often not even stiched together. The paper books for writing purposes - for record keeping, accounting etc. - were sometimes bound. Smaller paper usages, for drafts, were all unbound, a loose paper management.

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Regarding the small printed books of the period: pamphlets, newspapers, almanacs, broadsides, broadsheets, journals, etc. Most of these publications carrying text and image are nowadys "lost books". For #bookhistory: Most paper products from the "printing industry" are gone.

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The most important product of both the communication flows and administration activities of the period was paper. Handmade paper sheets to write on and to print upon. And these blank "unused" sheets came in many formats and qualities:

https://twitter.com/dbellingradt/status/1282637034654490624?s=20

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Purchasing fresh, unused, paper sheets (writing and printing paper) was important. Evidence suggests that these were sold and purchased as single-sheets, in units of 5 sheets, in units of 24/25 sheets, but the most common trade unit in Europe was the ream (500 sheets).

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The "paper states" of early modern Europe ran on paper work: in administration and communication. Next to "books", letters, and wrapping usages, much paper was used and needed in the cultural management of information - for example in archives. This sealed contract reminds us.
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Highlighting all these papers - fresh and used, written, printed and drawn upon - is making way for an alternative master narrative for the European epoch of Early Modernity (and elsewhere). No more “printing era”, historiography, it's time for a paper age narrative.

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