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Reconstructing the formation and use of the hitherto neglected Pandechion epistemonicon, Ulisse Aldrovandi's (152-1605) extant manuscript encyclopaedia, this article shows that early modern naturalists in many ways shared a world of paper with the members of several other professions. An analysis of the Pandechion suggests that Renaissance naturalists who applied the humanist jack-of-all-trades, the commonplace book, in their own field sometimes considerably altered its form. Aldrovandi tested and recombined different techniques so as to arrive at the paper technology that he considered to be the most fit for his purposes. He thereby drew on administrative practices as well as on the bookkeeping practices of early modern merchants that he knew first-hand.