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More than 1,000 years prior to the 'print revolution', a massive media transformation took place in the Middle East, namely, the introduction of paper during the eighth century. Accompanied by several further technological changes, the new writing surface—purportedly brought to Central Asia by Chinese prisoners of war—led to an increasing availability of written sources, an 'explosion of books'. In this paper, I examine the details of this early media transformation, survey how literary and historical sources discussed this development and give insight into the developments it entailed in just a few centuries. The main part of the paper deals with sources from the Mamluk period (1250–1517) that witnessed a thorough literarization of all parts of communal and personal life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Artificial light radiation is a viable tool for paper documents bleaching. • Artificial light bleaching does not produce any physico-chemical change in paper. • Artificial light bleaching reduces the yellowing of paper in short and long term. • Paper is physico-chemical and optically deteriorated by hydrogen peroxide. This study offers a new tool to restorers to bleach paper documents: artificial light radiation (ALR). It is a controlled method that is an alternative to other highly aggressive procedures that have been applied to cellulose based media. Its main novelty is its intrinsic lighting characteristics which guarantee uniformity and avoid heating the paper. The results of testing this new tool were compared to those of bleaching with hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2). Each of the two methods was applied to five different types of widely used paper: Arches and Somerset (brands serving for engraving and digital printing), Ingres (drawing), press-type (magazines and newspapers) and Bible-type (historical documents). Once characterised by physico-mechanical, chemical and optical parameters (grammage, thickness, specular gloss, optical properties, air permeance, tensile properties, determining the pH of both surface and aqueous extracts), the different papers were bleached by the two methods according to pre-established criteria. Finally, to determine the evolution and effects of the two treatments, the papers were subjected to accelerated ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the historical value of used playing cards. Details are given noting not only how playing cards in themselves are historically valuable due to their political and social meanings, but also how playing cards were more common than blank writing paper in the earlier centuries of the Modern era and the ways they were often reused for scrap paper. Dozens of examples of cards which were reused are given, highlighting how they provided primary material for historical study.

The article states that moralists and millers alike grinded away an epoch when the world of letters was inconceivable without paper, and when paper, though the source material was in perpetual short supply, could not be made without rag. Even paper and bread were not much different in composition, being in both cases vegetable stripped from the stalk and either cooked or dried; and the machinery that made them both was sometimes to be found under the same roof, millstone and masher blades in adjoining sheds, turned by the same gear and driven by the same wind or pure water.