Making Paper From Linen

In your magazine for May, 1762, an account of the first making paper from linen rags being desired, your inserting the following account will oblige your correspondent, M. Saintfoix, in his " Essais Historiques," has the following article : "An inhabitant of Padua, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, invented paper. It is a composition of old linen, pounded and ground by means of a water-mill, and afterwards laid out in sheets. It was not till the reign of Philip de Valois that it began to be known in France, and used instead of parchment. Philip reigned from 1328 to 135o."—In another part, speaking of Parchment Street, in Paris, he says that " Before the invention of printing in Europe, the Benedictines, Barnardines, and Carthusians employed themselves in copying ancient authors, and to them we owe the preservation of many valuable books. The Carthusians, understanding that the Count de Nivers intended them a rich present of plate, signified to him that parchment would be much more acceptable." The use of paper, such paper as ours, is but of a modern date. So lately as King John's time (son of the above Philip) parchment only was used for writing.