Bibliophiles in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century began to take a serious interest in the manuscripts of the Middle East and the paper on which they were written. Perhaps the most important of these men were C.-M. Briquet working in Geneva, and J. Wiesner and J. von Karabacek working in Vienna. All three were concerned with the burning topic of the moment: Was oriental paper made of cotton? Within the space of two years these three writers published seminal articles for the European study of Arab paper. Das Arabische Papier is one of those articles.
The late Don Baker's inspiration to set about the translation and interpretation of this work was 'simply the desire to know the contents of this much quoted article'. Students, historians, curators, collectors, conservators and all those interested in the historical development and spread of papermaking will realise why Don Baker wished to make this important text available to English readers.
This Archetype edition is a revised edition of the volume, which Don Baker produced in 1991.
CONTENTS:
Introduction: The Rainer Collection
The Decline of Papyrus and the Development of Paper
The Historical Development of Paper
The Historical Development of Papermaking from Rags (using Arab sources)
The First Papermakers
Samarquand (Khurasan) Paper
Rag Paper
The Spread of Papermaking
The Main Centres of Papermaking
Arab Papermaking Materials
The Origin of the Myth of Cotton Paper
The Technology of Paper
On Arab Diplomacy
Conclusions
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