Editing Foolscap folio (section)

===Europe===
Foolscap was named after the [[Court jester|fool]]'s [[cap and bells]] [[watermark]] commonly used from the 15th century onwards on paper of these dimensions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Müller |first=Lothar |title=White Magic: The Age of Paper |place=Cambridge|publisher=Polity Press |date=2014|page=173}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/foolscap|title=Foolscap|last=Anon|work=The Free Dictionary|publisher=Farlex |accessdate=17 September 2009}}</ref> The earliest example of such paper was made in Germany in 1479. Unsubstantiated anecdotes suggest that this watermark was introduced to England in 1580 by [[John Spilman]], a German who established a papermill at [[Dartford (borough)|Dartford]], Kent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/gallery/|title=Entry in the Dartford Holy Trinity parish register for Sir John Spielman (Spillman), 8 November 1626 |work=Medway: City Ark Document Gallery|publisher=Medway Council|accessdate=17 September 2009}}</ref>

The general pattern of the mark was used by Dutch and English papermakers in the late 17th and 18th centuries, and as early as 1674 the term "foolscap" was being used to designate a specific size of paper regardless of its watermark.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashbee |first1=Andrew |last2=Thompson |first2=Robert |last3=Wainwright |first3=Jonathan |chapter=Appendix I: 08-Watermarks and Paper Types |publisher=The Viola da Gamba Society |page=279 [29] |chapter-url=https://vdgs.org.uk/indexmss/08%20Watermarks.pdf |title=Index of Manuscripts containing Consort Music |volume=1 |url=https://vdgs.org.uk/indexmss/ |accessdate=13 July 2021}} Shows several types of foolscap watermark.</ref>

Apocryphally, the [[Rump Parliament]] of 1648–1653 substituted a fool's cap for the royal arms as a watermark on the paper used for the journals of Parliament.<ref>{{cite book
 |last=Johnston
 |first=William G.
 |title=Life and Reminiscences from Birth to Manhood of Wm. G. Johnston
 |place=Pittsburgh
 |publisher=Knickerbocker Press
 |year=1901
 |page=195
 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifereminiscence00john/page/195/mode/1up}}</ref> According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins'', there is no basis in fact for this statement.<ref>{{Citation |last=Cresswell |first=Julia |title=fool |date=2021-07-22 |work=Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198868750.001.0001/acref-9780198868750-e-2108?rskey=J4p3HH&result=2161 |access-date=2024-02-08 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi= |isbn=978-0-19-886875-0}}</ref>{{efn|[[Charles I of England|Charles I]] was executed on 30 January 1649, which would have been the cause of this supposed change. There were only around 40 mills making hand-made paper in England between 1601 and 1650, with 23 of them within 30 miles of London.<ref name="Hills" >{{cite book
 |last=Hills
 |first=Richard Leslie
 |authorlink=Richard L. Hills
 |title=Papermaking in Britain 1488-1988: A Short History
 |series=History: Bloomsbury Academic Collections
 |edition=reprint
 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing
 |date=2015
 |page=52
 |isbn=9781474241281
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zn5qCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA52}}</ref>  It appears that the manufacture of white paper in England had come to a halt in around 1641, perhaps because of the lack of a [[linen]] industry for raw materials, and more likely because of the impact of the troubled times leading to the [[First English Civil War|Civil War]]. The French had become the most prominent supplier of white paper from around 1600 to 1675, when the Dutch took over.<ref name="Hills" /> If there is any truth in the matter, it is possible that imported paper bearing such a mark might be the cause.}}