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Paper was one of the most important medieval inventions.

In ancient times, the materials used for writing were very limited. Papyrus was available in quantity, and it was inexpensive, but it was not very strong and did not last well. The other option was vellum, which was a membrane from the inside of the hide of an animal, usually sheep, which was not available in quantity, and was very expensive, but had the advantage of lasting much better. Good books were made from vellum, and this represented a great part of their cost, though the cost of writing the content of the books was much higher.

It is possible that the invention of paper came about in Europe as an indirect result of the introduction of new spinning wheels and looms, which produced large amounts of linen fabric. The use of large quantities of linen resulted in large amounts of rags, and the people of the Middle Ages always tried to make use of the things they had, and so invented paper making as a way to use them. But one way or another, paper was introduced in the High Middle Ages, and this resulted in a slight reduction in the price of books.

But more to the point, there was an abundance of paper, which was stronger and much more durable than vellum, and not more expensive than papyrus. This led to its common use. And its common use led to another, very important historic invention.

Paper has some qualities that vellum and papyrus do not. Vellum is too uneven in thickness to be useful for printing with the printing press, and papyrus is so weak the press is likely to pull it apart. You can use the other materials for hand printing, such as rubbing by hand on a woodblock, but they do not work with a printing press, which requires precisely flat surfaces and pulls across whole page at once. Without the invention of paper, the printing press is not practical. And so, without the invention of paper, the invention of the printing press might have gone unnoticed.

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13y ago

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