A material history of 15th-17th century paper used for
Icelandic handwritten and printed texts from
production to use and reuse
Use and Reuse of Paper in the Pre-Industrial World
27-28 August 2024, Cork, Ireland
Abstracts
Keynote lecture
Wrapping Up: The Long History of Waste Wrappers
Anna Reynolds
This paper will explore the history of waste wrappers and the ways in which it is both long and short: long in its reach from classical antiquity, with waste papyri wrapping fish and mummified bodies; through the intervening centuries where unwanted texts persistently wrapped spices, books, and all sorts of foods; to the fish and chip wrappers of the twentieth century. But the history of waste wrappers is also short in the sense that very few of these wrappers actually survive to the present day, with the life expectancy of waste wrappers, excepting binding waste and a small number of other, less destructive and waste practices, extremely brief. As a result of this short life expectancy, it is necessary to supplement our study of any material remnants with other sources that bear witness to these waste practices. This paper will focus on two particularly prominent alternative sources in the early modern period - poetry and paintings - and will explore the reliability of these sources, while making a case for the importance of the imaginative and material practices that they make visible. The paper will conclude with a reflection on the fate of waste wrappers in the modern day, attending to the peculiar transition that has occurred in recent decades as practical paper reuse has disappeared, to be replaced on occasion by artificially produced, imitative ‘waste’ paper. The aesthetic driving force behind waste paper use, if not the economic, is, it seems, still ongoing.
​
Parchment and Paper: Fragments and Endleaves in Late Medieval Oxford Bindings
Jemima Bennett
This paper will examine the use of manuscript fragments in bindings made in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, primarily in Oxford. Aspects of this phenomenon have historically been well-documented, but with a bias towards the fragment text as an indication of what was being discarded, and with a focus on the middle of the sixteenth century, especially book collections following the Dissolution. My paper will instead look at the material elements of the practice of reusing of fragments, mainly in the half century or so before the Dissolution. During this period of transition from manuscripts to printed books (and, implicitly, from parchment to paper), binders and their patrons increasingly had to make decisions concerning the composition of the pastedowns and flyleaves of their books. While many of these binding materials were parchment manuscript fragments, and some blank parchment, at this stage we also begin to see greater numbers of paper endleaves used. This paper will consider the factors that prompted these instances of the use and reuse of paper as a book’s endleaves, such as a binder’s supply of materials, or the personal choices that binder or of the person for whom the binding was made. In an exploration of these things, I also want to approach some conclusions regarding how paper endleaves were perceived and valued compared to parchment used in the same way, especially at this time of transition from parchment to paper.
​
Bound to Waste Paper: An Exploration of Printed and Manuscript Waste in Early American Books
Ashley Cataldo
Bear, fox, skunk, raccoon, and muskrat bones. Earthenware vessels and ceramics in shards. Tobacco pipes. Clam and mussel shells. These are the typical contents of an 18th–century trash pit from New England. But there never any books. Instead printed waste was part of the larger ecosystem of 18th century printing, binding, and bookselling. It made up the bindings of many 17th and 18th century books, just as it makes the very stuff of life around us. By engaging with waste studies and the study of early American archives, this talk looks at printed waste in early American bookbinding and catalogs the many uses of printed waste, including printed waste from Bibles in Indigenous languages and booksellers’ accounts that reveal examples of wastepaper being sold to members of the book community. Mary Douglas has said that dirt is “matter out of place” while Slavoj Zizek has said that erasing trash from our lives is part of the ideological work of capitalism. These early bindings are one example from one period in time (before recycling in the 20th or e-readers, whose extracted and toxic minerals fill waste heaps in the 21st) that help us to see the full cycle of production and consumption in one object.
​
Ingenious Recycling: Reused Paper in Icelandic Post-Medieval Manuscripts
Halldóra Kristinsdóttir and Rannver H. Hannesson
Iceland is known for a rich manuscript tradition. Even though a great number of parchment manuscripts written in the middle ages is preserved the majority of extant manuscripts were written on paper , which took over as writing material after the middle of the sixteenth century. However, paper was not produced domestically. As all paper needed to be imported, in addition to its high cost, it was not always easily available and therefor maybe more valuable than in other European countries. This might be the reason why there are various indications that paper was utilised to the fullest in Icelandic post medieval manuscript. For example, scribes used a few decades old paper to write on, new material was written on previously used paper, where new text was written over the older one, and paper that had been written on was also used to line and strenghten bindings, etc.
In our talk, we will look at the reuse of paper in Icelandic manuscripts and show examples of various usage of paper from the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century.
​
The Reuse of Paper in Egyptian Medieval Tailor Workshops
Fiona JL Handley and Anne Regourd
The Arabisch Leinwand (AL) collection is held by the Department of Papyrus (Papyrussammlung) in the Austrian National Library of Vienna. The collection was acquired in Egypt in the late 19th century by an antiquity trader in Cairo commissioned by Joseph von Karabacek, the famous papyrologist, and contains 68 items. Almost all of these have an association with writing. The language for the most part is Arabic with a few texts in Greek, or with Greek with Arabic. The collection of pieces related to writing can be broadly divided into the following two categories:
- Writing on textiles
- Writing on paper
The items under study here belong to the second category. There are 22 items that make use of reused paper documents. These are fragments of paper that are employed as structural inserts in clothing items including particularly skull cap type hats. Further understanding of their dating and use comes from archaeological materials collected from the Ayyubid and Mamluk site of Quseir al-Qadim (Egypt), where complete and fragmentary examples of hats were found using a range of stiffening inserts. They thus provide information on the work of tailors and hatters in the medieval period. The reuse of paper in these contexts raises questions around the association between different crafts during the Medieval period, and disposal and reuse practices of both textiles and paper. A further consideration is how the Islamic use of writing as a meaningful decorative addition to clothing may have influenced choices about including paper within garments. The presentation will also highlight how the collecting practices of the 19th century created an industry of sifting through the rubbish dumps of medieval Cairo at Fustat. This industry focussed on finding artefacts that were considered valuable based on their contribution to documenting history through texts or art history through decoration.
​
Use of Paper in 17th-Century Skálholt, Iceland
Silvia Hufnagel
In 1638, the highly learned Icelander Brynjólfur Sveinsson (1605-1675), prepared for his journey to the Netherlands for continuous studies. His preparations were interrupted by his appointment as bishop of Skálholt, the southern diocese in Iceland, by King Christian IV. Seeing his future in academia, Brynjólfur very politely declined. The king, however, did not take no for an answer, arguing that he wanted an academic for the post, rather than a theologian, and so Brynjólfur was ordained as bishop and stayed in Iceland.
Brynjólfur Sveinsson did continue to pursue his academic interests during his long time as bishop, though. Today, he is well known for attributing the Old Norse poetry collection Elder Edda to Sæmundur the Learned, for gifting the king the the famous Icelandic illuminated manuscript Book of Flatey, and for his copies of the now lost Book of Icelanders. He collected many manuscripts and had various scribes working for him, both in his capacities as a cleric and academic.
Among Bishop Brynjólfur‘s scribes we find Jón Erlendsson (d. 1672), arguably the most prolific of his scribes, with more than fifty extant paper manuscripts in his hand. Most of them are in folio-format and contain historical texts and sagas. Based on analyses of watermarks and quire structures, I will present what we can find out about Jón‘s scribal work and Brynjólfur‘s involvement, and thus about the use of paper in and around Skálholt.
​
One More Way to Reuse Paper: Papier Maché in the Mid-18th Century
Amélie Junqua
This talk focuses on the rise of the fashion for papier mâché interior decoration in mid-eighteenth century England, with early examples of ceiling ornamentation in the West Midlands, some of which display the different techniques of pulping or laminating paper fragments. The fashion was taken up enthusiastically in Ireland and there is more detailed evidence of the trade in Dublin and surrounding areas than there is in London. There is much interesting photographic evidence of surviving Dublin examples, which favourably compare with both English and American papier mâché ceilings of the same period.
​
Fragments of Paper and Parchment in Musical Instruments: Binder’s Waste for the Production and Repair of Lutes from the 16th to the 19th Century
Sebastian Kirsch
Paper and (to some extent) parchment, played a crucial role in the construction, maintenance, and repair of instruments, especially lutes. Paper and parchment were used for a variety of purposes: the design of templates for certain parts of the instrument, as carriers for the signature on the printed or handwritten label (an indicator of the authenticity and value of the instrument), and – crucially – for the reinforcement of joints and gluing of cracks during repairs. Today, several layers of mainly reused materials, such as binder’s waste, can be found in instruments. This includes paper in the form of blank folios, reused prints, manuscripts, music staves and notes, or drawings, which were repurposed in all periods. This makes musical instruments carriers of materials of bibliographical and fragmentological interest. Based on the analyses of 96 lute instruments, the reinforcing material is described and put into context with current approaches of the study of fragments and the material history of the objects. The type of repair material can be related not only to the trade of waste materials, but also to certain repair techniques concerning the history of technology and the biography of the objects. The material as well as the written content or the exact edition of the reused prints or manuscripts could be identified in several cases, why this study contributes to the interdisciplinary study of both musical instruments and philology.
​
Uses of Paper at the Bishopric of Hólar, Iceland, in the Mid-18th Century
Ermenegilda Müller
Paper was a fundamental resource for the Icelandic bishopric of Hólar í Hjaltadal in the 18th century. Writing paper was necessary for the episcopal school, while the printing press employed different types of paper for book production and corrections. Printing was a major source of income for the bishopric. In the 1750s, Iceland experienced extreme meteorological conditions which caused supply chain issues and shortages. Paper was among the materials that had to be procured nevertheless so that the school and press could stay in activity. The present paper examines the account registers held by Björn Markússon (1716-1791) while he while was responsible of the finances of Hólar and supervised the press in 1754-1757. It compares his purchase and distribution of paper to those of his predecessor and successor to determine how he managed this resource at a time of harsh economic conditions for the see and the country. It will also show the different types of paper used in Hólar at the time and the evolution of their prices. This study will shed light on the role of paper in Hólar’s economy and in daily life at the press and school. It will contribute to our larger understanding of paper’s use in early modern Iceland.
​
Reused Fragments in Book Structures: The Case of an Incunabulum from the Franciscan Library of Falconara
Giovanni Pagani
The common way to conserve reused fragments, which are intentionally disassembled during the conservation process, is to keep them separated at the end of the intervention. Even when the conservation processes are technically correct, in the case of reused fragments, it does not guarantee the maintenance of both the physical and historical link between the dissociated elements and the main body. This undermines the integrity of the object, removing us from the original intention of these reused fragments. The incunabulum “Sermones Sancti Vincentii fratris ordinis predicatorum de tempore pars hyemalis” from the Biblioteca Storico Francescana Picena “San Giacomo della Marca”, has in the structure 3 different reused parchment sources, and a cartonnage of 46 handwritten papers. This is an example of the challenge in achieving a comprehensive conservation of all the elements, in their original position, making their content as well as their physical-historical link readable. This presentation illustrates the case-study of this incunabulum, and the processes undertaken to retain the object’s structural integrity, while making the fragments accessible for further study.
Use and Reuse of European and Indigenous Paper in 16th- and 17th-Century Mexican Bindings as Evidence of the Clash of Two Cultures
Martha Elena Romero
Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas, the indigenous people who inhabited Mesoamerica made paper from the fibers of amate, cotton and agave. This type of paper had characteristics very similar to European cardboard, but more flexible and smoother, on which it could be easily written. The paper, in addition to being used for the writing of codices, had a ritual connotation for indigenous society.
During the first years of the colony following the conquest of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the use of indigenous paper was prohibited because it was considered material of idolatry and the production and sale of paper in New Spain (today Mexico) was a monopoly of the Spanish crown. To prevent the new colony from finding means to be self-sufficient, the Spaniards controlled the supply of paper, but the shipments from Spain were not frequent enough or sufficient to satisfy the need for this material. Because of this, the indigenous paper coexisted with the European in the elaboration and binding of books, both those books printed in New Spain and those arriving from Europe with or without binding. Still, sometimes extreme, when a war interrupted communications with Spain, people helped themselves to whatever was available, and old books contributed to the public consumption and it was sold as written or printed paper. Even though the paper industry was firmly established in New Spain from the seventeenth century onwards, white paper was expensive in colonial times.
The talk will briefly describe the historical context of New Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and discuss the printed and manuscript works used as reuse paper in Mexican bindings, as well as the use of indigenous paper in the bookbinding craft. The documentary value of reuse paper for the history of the book, bookbinding, and the Mexican colonial economy at the time of study will be exposed.
​
Wrapping Words with Paper: Early 18th-Century Archival Use of (Waste) Paper Surrounding Icelandic Charter Copies
Beeke Stegmann
Between 1702 and 1712, the Icelandic scholar and manuscript collector Árni Magnússon (1663-1730) systematically produced copies of older charters and legal documents from his native island. In total, individual transcriptions of over 5000 charters are preserved, with many documents having been copied more than once. Such a personal archive was only useful to a scholar like Árni Magnússon if it was organized in one way or another, allowing him to locate a relevant item relatively quickly. Indeed, he appears to have introduced different ways of structuring this archive - for the most part relying on paper.
This presentation investigates how Árni Magnússon employed paper for archival purposes in connection with his collection of charter copies. It thus discusses early 18th-century use of paper in Iceland not primarily for writing texts, but rather for ordering and protecting purposes. Not infrequently, these same pieces of paper had a double function, also carrying hand-written notes identifying the archival section in question. Additionally, loose note slips were frequently inserted into the charter copies – either by Árni himself or on his behalf – usually carrying further information on material features or provenance of the original charter.
A complete survey has identified close to 1500 preserved pieces of paper that were inserted into the charter archive to order and protect the loose items and/or to provide notes. Of these, at least 20% were clearly made from reused paper, which is in contrast to the charter copies themselves that are hardly ever made from previously used writing support. This presentation therefore highlights a case where the intended function had an impact on what kind of paper was used with a higher likelihood of reused material for surrounding, archival purposes compared to the archived material itself. However, the kinds of paper used appear not to have been mutually exclusive and in part dependent on availability.
​
“Á blaði sérílagi”: Reuse of Paper in Folklore Collections
Yelena Sesselja Helgadóttir
Collecting folklore in the pre-industrial world required large amounts of paper, since paper was the only medium of collection. This was particularly true for the first large-scale folklore collection campaign in Iceland in the middle of the 19th century, when the collectors were instructed to write down each collected item on a separate page in order to facilitate later classification of the texts and organization of larger folklore collections (a requirement that only sometimes was respected by the collectors). Manuscripts related to that campaign were thus particularly likely to contain loose leaves – and recycled materials.
Among the recycled paper items most often found in Icelandic manuscript collections of folklore and antiquities are leaves initially used as envelopes or covers and later reused for writing the main text of a manuscript, such as folk poetry. This is particularly common in the 19th-century collections, but there are also examples from the 18th and 20th century. Such leaves may contain wax seals, post stamps and even printed material; some folk poetry is written down between the lines of older letters.
My presentation is a case study of Lbs 587 4to I, Jón Árnason’s collection of postmedieval þulur (a type of folk poems) – a good part of which is written on envelopes that are bound in a book – accompanied by other examples of reusing envelopes and other paper in Icelandic manuscripts pertaining to collections of folk poetry. I will discuss strategies of reusing envelopes – and what a literary scholar could learn from them
​
​
Schedule and venue:
27-28 August 2024, University College Cork, Ireland
More information about the conference
​
Contact:
Silvia Hufnagel silvia@hi.is
The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Edda
Arngrímsgata 5
ÍS-107 Reykjavík
ICELAND
