Early paper in the West was made primarily from linen and hemp rags. More specifically, European papermakers collected worn-out clothing and textile scraps made from flax (the plant behind linen fabric) and hemp, then broke those fibers down into pulp. This rag-based process dominated Western papermaking from roughly the 12th century all the way until the mid-1800s, when wood pulp took over.
Linen and Hemp Were the Core Ingredients
Microscopic analyses of European paper specimens made between 1400 and 1800 show that most sheets contained a mixture of hemp and flax fiber. In the earlier centuries, hemp dominated, sometimes making up around 75% of the fiber content. Flax, processed into linen cloth before eventually becoming paper stock, made up most of the rest.
Cotton was technically available in Europe during this period, but it wasn’t widely grown or woven there. Cotton rags didn’t become a significant papermaking material until the 19th century. So if you’re holding a Western document from the 1400s or 1500s, it’s almost certainly hemp and linen.
These weren’t fresh plant fibers pulled straight from the field. Papermakers relied on used textiles: old shirts, bedsheets, rope, and sail canvas that had already been worn out through daily use. The prior wear actually helped, because the fibers had already been partially broken down, making them easier to pulp. Rag collectors were a familiar sight in European towns for centuries, gathering the raw material that mills depended on.
From Raw Flax to Finished Sheet
The journey from plant to paper was extraordinarily wasteful. Historical records show that 100 kilograms of raw picked flax yielded only about 1.7 kilograms of finished paper. Most of the loss happened during textile processing: drying the flax reduced it to 25 kilograms, and the retting, combing, spinning, and weaving stages cut it further to under 3 kilograms of linen cloth. The final papermaking steps shaved off still more.
At the paper mill, workers sorted rags by quality and color, then soaked them in water for days or weeks to soften them. The softened rags were pounded into pulp using water-powered stamping mills, a technology introduced in Spain as early as 1151. The stamping hammers beat the fibers apart without cutting them too short, which helped produce strong, flexible sheets. A papermaker then dipped a wooden mold into a vat of the watery pulp, lifted it out, and let the water drain through the mesh to form a thin, even layer of interlocked fibers.
The Mold That Shaped Every Sheet
Western papermaking molds were distinct from their Asian counterparts. The frame was made of wood with a woven mesh of copper wire stretched across it. Two different gauges of wire served different purposes: heavier wires attached to wooden ribs ran across the width for structural support, while lighter wires ran lengthwise to create the actual forming surface.
These construction details left visible marks in the finished paper. The heavy wires and wooden ribs produced what are called chain lines, and the finer wires left closely spaced laid lines. If you hold a sheet of old handmade paper up to the light, you can often see this grid pattern. It’s essentially a fingerprint of the mold that made it, and scholars still use these marks today to date and trace the origins of historical documents.
Gelatin Sizing Made Paper Usable for Writing
Raw paper fresh off the mold acts like a sponge. Ink would bleed and feather across unsized sheets, making them useless for writing. To solve this, early Western papermakers treated their paper with sizing, a coating that controlled how the surface absorbed liquid.
The key innovation happened at the mills in Fabriano, Italy, where gelatin was first used to size paper. This gelatin came from boiling animal hides, horns, hooves, and bones into a protein-rich solution. Finished sheets were dipped into the warm gelatin bath, then hung to dry. The result was a smooth, firm surface that held ink crisply.
To prevent mold and bacteria from growing in the sizing (a real problem in warm weather), papermakers added alum, a mineral salt. By the mid-1600s, alum in the sizing tub was standard practice. In hot conditions, alum could make up as much as 20% of the sizing solution. Earlier traditions in the Arab world and Asia had used starch-based sizing from wheat flour or rice, but gelatin became the defining Western approach.
Why Rag Paper Lasted So Well
Documents written on rag paper 500 or 600 years ago often remain in remarkably good condition. Research from the National Bureau of Standards found that rag papers frequently have superior mechanical durability compared to wood pulp papers, though the exact reason is somewhat counterintuitive. Cotton and linen fibers don’t absorb water as readily as wood fibers do, which means they swell less during processing and form a different kind of internal structure. That structure turns out to be exceptionally strong and long-lasting. U.S. currency is still printed on rag-based paper for exactly this reason.
By contrast, the wood pulp papers that became standard after the 1840s contain lignin and other compounds that break down over time, turning pages yellow and brittle. Anyone who has handled a cheap paperback from the 1960s knows the difference firsthand.
Paper Replaced Something Far More Expensive
Before paper arrived in Europe, the main writing surface was parchment, made from the prepared skins of sheep, goats, or calves. Parchment was extremely expensive. A single book could require the hides of dozens of animals, and the finest grade, made from unborn calves, commanded extraordinary prices. Paper offered a dramatically cheaper alternative, which is a major reason it spread so quickly once it arrived.
The first European paper mills appeared in Islamic Spain, where makers in Xàtiva converted old Roman olive-grinding mills for pulping fiber. By 1151, water-powered stamping mills were operating in Spain. The technology moved to Italy, and by 1264, Fabriano had become home to many well-established mills that refined the craft with innovations like gelatin sizing and watermarks. From Italy, papermaking spread north through France, Germany, and England over the following two centuries.
The Shift to Wood Pulp
Rag paper dominated Western production for roughly 700 years. But by the early 1800s, demand for paper was outstripping the supply of old rags. The explosion of newspapers, books, and bureaucratic paperwork made the textile-scrap supply chain unsustainable. After 1800, the craft changed rapidly with the introduction of papermaking machines, chlorine bleach, and most significantly, wood pulp as a substitute for rags. Wood was cheap, abundant, and could be harvested at industrial scale. Within a few decades, rag paper went from the standard to a specialty product reserved for fine stationery, archival documents, and currency.