Post by Tamrin on Jul 16, 2009 7:21:47 GMT 10
THE ALBIGENSIAN PAPERMAKERS AND WATERMARKS
[Excerpts - Article, HERETICS AND THE RENAISSANCE - Linked Above]
[Excerpts - Article, HERETICS AND THE RENAISSANCE - Linked Above]
THE Cathari or Albigenses, we are told, were gradually rooted out by the Inquisition and after the first half of the Fourteenth century they "disappear from history." [However, facts presented by Harold Bayley in his book A New Light on the Renaissance] seem to prove that although persecution had the effect of scattering the sufferers, they tenaciously clung to their cherished tenets and traditions, conforming outwardly to the religions of the countries in which they took refuge. It is obvious that papermaking being an art in which they were proficient, they would employ it as a means of livelihood, in the same way as their unfortunate Huguenot successors carried their crafts with them after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I think that the obscure course of papermaking in Europe marks the track of Albigensian exiles, small bands of whom penetrated to England (where history knew them under the name of Lollards) and to the remotest parts of the Continent. (Bayley, pp. 39, 40, 85.)
[The South of France, as we have seen, had been for several centuries the scene of a brilliant civilization, while over most of Europe the darkness of the Middle Ages had not yet begun to give way to the dawn of the Renaissance.] Among the arts and industries that flourished in Provence and the surrounding districts, papermaking was one of the foremost. Bayley calls this region the cradle of European papermaking and for many centuries the center of the industry. [He points out that] the heretical sects which, to use an ecclesiastical expression, infected Europe like leprosy, flourished almost solely among the artisan classes. It is not surprising, therefore, that papermaking and printing alike have fallen largely into heretical hands. (Ibid., pp. 2, 5-6.)
It is a fact, the significance of which has hitherto been unnoted, that the early papermaking districts were precisely those that were strongholds of the heretical sects known as the Albigenses, a term applied loosely to the various pre-Reformation reformers whose strongholds stretched from Northern Spain across the southern provinces of France to Lombardy and Tuscany. In Spain and France they were known as Albigenses from Albi the name of one of their prominent towns. In the Alpine provinces they were called Waldenses, from Peter Waldo, one of their most conspicuous members. (Ibid., p. 11.)
The keynote of the Albigensian character was industry, and it is said that the axiom "Work is Prayer" had its origin among them. In Italy they were known not only as Cathari, the pure ones, but as "Patarini." This is said to have been derived from pates a word meaning old linen. There was a street in Milan called Pataria or the rag market where the Cathari congregated so conspicuously that they were dubbed "Patarini." It is difficult to understand why the rag markets were proverbially so popular with them, unless they met there for the purpose of buying their raw material for papermaking, i.e., rags. But the evidence from the watermarks lifts conjecture into certainty, and demonstrates that it was unquestionably among "the pure ones" and "the good people" that papermaking first flourished in Europe. (Ibid., p. 13.) [Information obtained in 1963 from the Italian Information Center in New York City confirms the fact that "there is indeed in Milan a street called Via Patari. The origins of the name are unclear, but it could very well allude to the 'ragsellers' who were so called in Milanese dialect."] In The Empire and the Papacy, T. F. Tout, M.A. says: "The Paterini were known as the ragpickers and the 'ragbags'" (page 115). (Ibid., p. 235.)
[The South of France, as we have seen, had been for several centuries the scene of a brilliant civilization, while over most of Europe the darkness of the Middle Ages had not yet begun to give way to the dawn of the Renaissance.] Among the arts and industries that flourished in Provence and the surrounding districts, papermaking was one of the foremost. Bayley calls this region the cradle of European papermaking and for many centuries the center of the industry. [He points out that] the heretical sects which, to use an ecclesiastical expression, infected Europe like leprosy, flourished almost solely among the artisan classes. It is not surprising, therefore, that papermaking and printing alike have fallen largely into heretical hands. (Ibid., pp. 2, 5-6.)
It is a fact, the significance of which has hitherto been unnoted, that the early papermaking districts were precisely those that were strongholds of the heretical sects known as the Albigenses, a term applied loosely to the various pre-Reformation reformers whose strongholds stretched from Northern Spain across the southern provinces of France to Lombardy and Tuscany. In Spain and France they were known as Albigenses from Albi the name of one of their prominent towns. In the Alpine provinces they were called Waldenses, from Peter Waldo, one of their most conspicuous members. (Ibid., p. 11.)
The keynote of the Albigensian character was industry, and it is said that the axiom "Work is Prayer" had its origin among them. In Italy they were known not only as Cathari, the pure ones, but as "Patarini." This is said to have been derived from pates a word meaning old linen. There was a street in Milan called Pataria or the rag market where the Cathari congregated so conspicuously that they were dubbed "Patarini." It is difficult to understand why the rag markets were proverbially so popular with them, unless they met there for the purpose of buying their raw material for papermaking, i.e., rags. But the evidence from the watermarks lifts conjecture into certainty, and demonstrates that it was unquestionably among "the pure ones" and "the good people" that papermaking first flourished in Europe. (Ibid., p. 13.) [Information obtained in 1963 from the Italian Information Center in New York City confirms the fact that "there is indeed in Milan a street called Via Patari. The origins of the name are unclear, but it could very well allude to the 'ragsellers' who were so called in Milanese dialect."] In The Empire and the Papacy, T. F. Tout, M.A. says: "The Paterini were known as the ragpickers and the 'ragbags'" (page 115). (Ibid., p. 235.)
Watermarks