Paper comes to the North

The study of paper encompasses many disciplines of science. Paper history and particularly the study of watermarks, filigranology, started to attract the attention of scolars towards the end of the nineteenth century. Gradually filigranology came to develop into an auxiliary science in aid of histor [...]
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The study of paper encompasses many disciplines of science. Paper history and particularly the study of watermarks, filigranology, started to attract the attention of scolars towards the end of the nineteenth century. Gradually filigranology came to develop into an auxiliary science in aid of history. In the past the bibliographical evidence available in paper, watermarks, etc., was mainly used as a means of dating documents and prints. But watermarks also offer a way to establish where a particular sheet of paper was made. A closer study of the occurrence of paper with a certain watermark in different consuming regions contributes to our knowledge of how the commodity changed hands in the world of trade. I will help us to acquire more information about the trade practices prevailing during different periods. Also in the early days the product often travelled long distance crossing several borders before reaching its final destination. The purpose of this study has been to establish the origins of the paper used in Finland in the old days, in an attempt to shed new light on trade routes and trade partners during the period reaching from 1350, which is the date of the oldest preserved Finnish paper document, up to the turn of the seventeenth/eighteenth century.