Page:De Vinne, Invention of Printing (1876).djvu/547

Rh in request for quartos and ocatvos. The largest size seems to have been royal, about 20 by 25 inches. The Cost Book of the Ripoli Press gives names and prices to nine distinct qualities or sizes of paper, but it does not define the weights and measurements. The smallest size and cheapest quality, possibly a pot foolscap, was put down at the price of 2 lire 8 soldi (about $2.18) per ream; the largest and best, probably royal, at 6 lire 8 soldi (about $5.80) per ream.



The paper made for the Bibles of Gutenberg and for the earlier books was the ordinary writing paper of the period. Made from linen rags that had not been weakened by caustic alaklies or by steam-boiling and gas-bleaching processes, and strongly sized by the dipping of each sheet in a tub