Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 123, a material change.

In this episode, we're going to explore an important development that took place in Western

Europe in the 1300s.

During this period, we have the first signs of a shift in the way scribes compiled their

manuscripts.

Now this change wasn't a new language or a new script, and it wasn't a new style of

writing.

It was actually a change in the material that the scribes wrote on.

Around this time, we have the first evidence that paper had made its way to England.

This new writing material had its ultimate origin in China, and the introduction of paper

reflects a more fundamental change that was about to take place.

That change was the transition from animal hides like parchment and vellum to a plant-based

material like paper.

Over the long term, paper proved to be cheaper and could be mass-produced, and it provided

the key ingredient for the printing press when it arrived in the next century.

So the events of this episode laid the groundwork for the printing revolution that took place

a couple of generations later.

This time we'll explore those developments, and we'll see how this material change impacted

the English language.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com

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