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This article focuses on the professional writing of women in the transformation phase around 1800. Referring specifically to the woman of letters Helmina von Chézy (1783-1856) and her family, which participated in the literary market over four generations, it asks how authors could use paper(s) as assets or resources. It is shown that writersʼ papers were collected and kept as material evidence of life, that they could be an indicator of financial status and provide insight into financial practices, and that they were used particularly to position oneself (as a writer) and to relate to others. Within changing personal and historical contexts, the writing work of family members was based ultimately, in varying forms and shapes, on the logics of their social relations, lived as well as negotiated and recorded on paper. Thus, the papers used and inscribed in the family can be conceptualized as a multi-perspective kaleidoscope, offering new views on central aspects and mechanisms of writerly economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the importance of paper in the context of early modern warfare. During the war against the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 17th century, the Habsburgs were establishing a new administration in Hungary, which served both military and civil purposes. Not only did administrative tasks have to be organized, but the very success of military operations depended on the well-ordered work of the administration: communication had to be smooth, and a wide variety of tasks had to be properly and reliably processed. To fulfil these requirements, the administration needed large quantities of paper. This study follows the traces of paper in the records of the Chamber Administration in Buda and points to the vital need for paper at the heart of the new Habsburg rule. The challenges of acquiring and producing paper themselves became crucial aspects of the administration’s work. The article argues that a reliable supply of paper competed even with the distribution of arms and food to become an essential resource in warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper was already being used in southwestern Germany before the first paper mills began production there in the late 14th century. But it was the establishment of a local paper industry that made the still relatively new writing material available in large quantities. The demand for paper made the operation of a paper mill seem profitable, and the increased supply of paper in turn fueled the rise in writing. At the end of the Middle Ages, paper thus became the material basis of a media evolution that extended far into modern times. But how was the new writing material produced? The new craft of papermaking differed significantly from the production of parchment, the traditional writing material, in terms of equipment, raw materials, capital requirements, and working methods. Nevertheless, papermaking could use already existing infrastructures, especially in the field of energy supply by waterwheels. This article examines the specific characteristics of the new craft using the example of the German southwest, where numerous paper mills were established in the 15th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including use and procurement of paper in wartime; disappearance of paper using the example of restructuring and Reorganization of libraries and how photographs as with agency equipped medium.