An important development was the mechanization of paper manufacture by medieval papermakers. The introduction of water-powered paper mills, the first certain evidence of which dates to the 11th century in Córdoba, Spain,[11] allowed for a massive expansion of production and replaced the laborious handcraft characteristic of both Chinese[12][13] and Muslim[12][14] papermaking. Papermaking centres began to multiply in the late 13th century in Italy, reducing the price of paper to one sixth of parchment and then falling further.[15]