The Path of Paper: New Evidence for the History of an Old Technology

The first 2026 Sandars Lecture draws on manuscript evidence to revisit key moments in paper’s long migration. The history of paper is usually told as a story of diffusion from east to west, from ancient China to the medieval Islamic world and Europe. But much of the evidence is still up for grabs, with recent archaeological and archival discoveries complicating received narratives. This lecture draws on manuscript evidence to revisit key moments in paper’s long migration. Highlights include the Sogdian (not Chinese) origins of Arab papermaking; an eleventh-century North African treatise long dismissed as literary convention; and documents from the Michaelides and Cairo Genizah collections in Cambridge that are the earliest known dated, physical evidence of paper use in Egypt and the Iberian peninsula. Attending this lecture in-person This lecture is FREE and OPEN TO ALL. Booking required. In the event in-person tickets are sold out, please join the waitlist. Or you can sign up to watch the livestream here. Both lectures will be recorded. The lecture will take place in Robinson College’s Umney Theatre in Cambridge. For accessibility information, please visit https://www.accessable.co.uk/robinson-college/access-guides/umney-theatre. All those attending this lecture are invited back to Cambridge University Library for a drinks reception and display until 7.30pm. Accessibility information for the drinks reception hosted in the Milstein Seminar Rooms at the University Library, can be found here: https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/using-library/disabled-library-users/access-milstein-exhibition-centre-and-seminar-room. Full information about the 2026 Sandars Lectures can be found at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/sandars.