A name to attach to the origins of the manuscript

[Jorge_Stolfi]

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by the University of Namur.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. by Eugenio Monesma

At first sight it may seem that both require an large amount of work.  But the same work produces one sheet of vellum, and several hundred sheets of paper...

paper was not available everywhere. Germany, for example, had around 10 paper mills in 1450.  The idea that paper was easily available to everyone, especially in rural areas, is an illusion

Paper, like vellum, has large price/weight ratio, and is not perishable.  Unlike vellum, even a small a paper mill can produce several hundred sheets per day.  

Thus neither paper nor vellum require local manufacture. Both can be imported over large distances.  Wasn't the paper of Marci's letter made in Italy?

All the best, --stolfi

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Paper may have been available, but yes, in the early fifteenth century it was not yet in common use and would have been more expensive than parchment. 

Do you have a source for this claim?