This article seeks to cross disciplinary boundaries while examining watermark paper in the ‘Cairo Genizah’ manuscript collections at the Cambridge University Library. Mainly dating between 1100 and 1897, this corpus provides a continuous cross-section of Egyptian-Jewish literary activity during the entire transition to watermark paper, including samples of paper stocks used in Cairo, Alexandria, Rosetta, Guadalajara, Híjar, Lisbon, Faro, Salonika, Constantinople, and Jerusalem, among other places. As we shall see, Genizah data about these stocks can supplement the study of paper in Egypt, Italy, Iberia, and the Ottoman Empire between 1350 and 1600. It also presents new opportunities for collaboration between European and Middle Eastern historians that will enhance the current understanding of papermaking and trade around the Mediterranean Sea.

Read here: https://doi.org/10.17613/mvfdf-sks77

Cite this work: Posegay, Nick and Orietta Da Rold. 2024. “Following the Mediterranean Paper Trail: A Study of European Paper in Late Medieval Cairo (ca. 1350-1600).” The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society 25.4, 430-452.