from EurekaAlert -
From rags to riches, or how undergarments improved medieval literacy
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Conservation-quality boards are called ragboards, for a reason - in that quality paper and boards are made, literally, from cotton rags. Now a scholar has speculated that the spread of printing, made possible by the availability of cheap paper (as opposed to the expensive and labour-intensive animal skin parchment) which is made from, of all things, undergarments. Do they ever wash them before recycling?
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