Literacy and goat skins
Bill Poser revealed connections among literacy, linen rags, and goat skins in Language Log: The Relationship Between Underwear and Literacy.
July 08, 2007
The Relationship Between Underwear and Literacy
Although the invention of printing with movable type is often taken to be the technology that led to greatly increased literacy, a recent paper argues that a key step took place earlier, namely the development of rag paper. Until then, in Europe books were all written on parchment, which was very expensive though very durable. (The archival copies of British Acts of Parliament are still printed on vellum.) Owning a book was doubly expensive because not only did it require many hours of skilled labor to copy but the material of which the copy was made was expensive. Rag paper provided a suitable material at much lower cost, and its development therefore led to an increase in literacy.
The interesting thing is, where did the rags come from? In mediaeval Europe, most clothing was made of wool, which is ill-suited to making paper. The key development came in the 13th century when more people began to wear linen underclothing. This practice led to a significant increase in the supply of linen rags, from which paper was made. Posted by Bill Poser at July 8, 2007 02:38 PM
The link to British Parliament points to a BBC report in 1999, which is partially copied here for archival purpose.
Historic tradtion
Acts of Parliament dating back to 1497 recorded on vellum are currently held in the House of Lords Public Record Office.
Under the proposed change duplicate copies of Acts of Parliament would also no longer be placed in the Public Record Office at Kew, replacing a resolution decreed in 1849 that two copies of every Act should be printed on vellum.
Opening the short debate, Dr Palmer (Broxtowe) said the committee considered the change "appropriate and justifiable".
Continuing to deposit duplicate record copies of both public and private Acts at the Public Record Offices appeared to "serve no useful purpose".
Dr Palmer dismissed concerns about the durability of archive paper compared with vellum as "groundless".
He said vellum and archive paper were both flammable so security could not depend alone on the document.