La Valchiera is a reconstruction of a typical medieval papermill, in the small town of Bevagna near Assisi, in Umbria. Bevagna has no history of papermaking, but a group of town leaders recently brought Italian papermaking to life in the town's ancient Roman ruins. For a local festival some years ago, residents worked purposefully to represent the medieval crafts of Italy. Master papermaker Francesco “Cecco” Proietti, a former accountant, says that building the papermill was "very demanding." He and others traveled to the paper museum in Fabriano, where they researched drawings and notes in the Library, then returned to construct the mill in the spirit of the originals. Great care has gone into authenticity. Old railroad ties provided the wood for the building; the machines, built according to the old drawings, look original. Signor Proietti recounts, “After almost a year and much difficulty the papermill was a reality. Here the seeds were sown that made me fall in love with this trade, …[and] I decided to make a profession of it.”  Almost the entire mill is housed in one cavernous stone room. A long, narrow anteroom contains a basket of rags and a lime-pit on the floor. A gallery wall features artwork given to the mill. Production paper and products made at the mill are for sale; Signor Proietti also uses them as examples. On one visit, the mill had almost nothing to sell because it had recently shipped most of its stock. Clients local and national desire useful articles, such as paper for business cards and wedding announcements. Painters and commercial engravers also buy the mill's paper. The mill proper is in the lower section of an old Roman amphitheater. This setting creates an exciting way to see how the old equipment functioned, to sense the scale of the machinery, and to get the feel of what it was like in a papermill of the Middle Ages. (Recently, Signor Proietti told me that the mill will move to a new site within the amphitheater. They will dismantle and then reassemble the equipment.) Signor Proietti is very accommodating and has welcomed my companions and me on several visits, something he does regularly for school groups and others. A highlight of one’s visit to La Valchiera is a demonstration of the stamper, a marvel. Signor Proietti opened the water valve to turn the wheel with hydraulic power and got the gigantic stamper operating, several hammers, each pounding cotton rags in separate troughs. The wood of the stamper is completely splattered with bright white dried cotton pulp, indicating the force with which the hammers strike. The raised platform that surrounds the stamper offers a view into the troughs, a good vantage point from which to observe the hammers close-up, even when the stamper is running. As expected, it is very loud. The three different surfaces of the hammers—from one imbedded with iron spikes to the smoothest—fulfill their various functions of first cutting the rags then refining them gradually into separate fibers. The stamper takes time to operate but makes a nice pulp. Signor Proietti demonstrates sheet forming in a large wooden vat lined with copper, using handmade moulds and deckles typical of the era. He stirs the slurry with a stick and couches on a curved stand. A large, heavy wooden press stands ready to take each freshly formed post. The sheets are hung to dry on felts, then removed. An area is set aside with a kettle for cooking animal-skin glue, for external sizing.             Signor Proietti is interested in the people who come to visit, especially papermakers. On one visit I was accompanied by Peter Thomas, who taught him some ergonomics of hand papermaking. When I returned the next year, he recalled Peter’s principles and expressed interest in learning more about papermaking. More than anything I have been struck by the absence of a theme-park feeling to this mill. It was not built for money or for easy entertainment, but instead with the goals of evoking the past, and learning and respecting a valued part of a civilization. Fabriano “When you have a sheet of paper in front of you, you can write poetry, you can paint a Mona Lisa, you can write a song, in each way you put a shadow of your soul onto it.” So says Giorgio Pellegrini, administrator of the Museum of Paper and Watermarks in Fabriano. Signor Pellegrini, who formerly worked as chief of the city's office of culture and tourism, was appointed to the Museum position three years ago. This was his first contact with the field of papermaking. The museum was started in the 1980s by Signor Castagnari, the Director of the Fabriano Library. Signor Castagnari collected and studied many volumes on paper. It was his idea to establish a museum for scholarship, to keep the knowledge of papermaking alive. From a solid beginning, this public resource, supported exclusively by the city of Fabriano, has expanded its scope and is gaining in popularity. Last year was the best ever for attendance and this year the Museum has had even more visitors. In 1276 Arab papermakers first taught papermaking to the Fabrianesi. A Fabriano craftsman, working in Bologna, invented the first watermark in 1282. The papermaking craft was jealously guarded by town authorities, as demonstrated by a statute of 1436, which forbade the erection of papermaking buildings within a radius of fifty miles of Fabriano, and prohibited the teaching of the art of papermaking to anyone who did not reside within the town. In 1445 the town priors extracted a promise from the town’s only mouldmaker to teach the craft but not to build or repair molds for use outside Fabriano. But by the early 1700s there were only three mills left in Fabriano, due to a new export tax on paper and better quality papers from neighboring countries.  Founded in 1782, Pietro Miliani’s company created in 1796 new “vellum” sheets (possibly the introduction of wove paper to Italy), which became widely sought after for printing. The Fabriano paper industry was restored, and the Miliani firm eventually absorbed most of the town's other papermills. In the nineteenth century, Pietro’s grandson Giuseppe completed the transformation of the facility from an artisan mill to a modern industrial complex. His son, Giambattista, educated in industrial chemistry in Rome, introduced technical innovations for quality and production. In 1930, the Miliani mill became a public corporation. Although the firm's primary mill is located in the town of Fabriano, additional mills are found in the nearby towns of Pioraco and Rocchetta di Fabriano, and in Verona. The Miliani mills make Fabriano's internationally known artists’ papers. Arab papermakers used starch sizing. Their papers were prone to attack and destruction by molds and other microorganisms, especially in damp Europe. This may have been one of the reasons that an early Italian law prohibited the writing of official documents on paper, requiring the use of parchment instead. Italian papermakers developed gelatin sizing to replace the starch and the Fabriano mills were among the first to use this technique. Signor Pellegrini explains, "They obtained this gelatin sizing from the boiled skin of animals. This sizing transferred the characteristics of the costly parchment to the more economical paper. …[This] accelerated the dissemination of culture and knowledge throughout the different layers of society.”  In 1984, the city of Fabriano worked with the Miliani mill to preserve the city’s paper heritage, founding the Museum of Paper and Watermark at a former thirteenth-century Dominican monastery. In the main cloister of this historic building is now displayed an antique stamper.  On the ground floor, authentically reconstructed equipment makes up a working antique mill. Master papermakers expertly demonstrate the craft for visitors, using large wooden vats, antique watermarked moulds, a curved couching surface, and a wooden press. A stamper, an area for boiling animal sizing, and space for weighing, flattening, and packaging paper can also be seen. An old-style machine dries the sized paper, with a large modern electric version on the side for comparison. In another room, a mouldmaker sews a watermark to a mould with wire. In a bindery, a bookbinder demonstrates his craft and makes books sold in the museum shop. Gallery exhibits present cases of tools and a mould-making bench, in a display of traditional equipment. Cast bronze positives and negatives illustrate the mechanism for pressing a chiaroscuro screen, a nineteenth-century innovation. A brick-walled gallery is covered by exquisite moulds, with watermarks sewn to the laid and wove surfaces, for use in making stationery and currency. One gallery surveys historical watermark designs and watermarked paper. In it, an impressive backlit display is devoted to historical watermarks of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, from the Augusto and Aurelio Zonghi collection. The Museum continues to grow, having recently received a historic collection of paper from the Italian Ministry of Finance. A bureau in Rome, the Ente Cellulosa & Carta, has donated historic papermaking and printing equipment. The paper machinery is now part of the functioning area of the Museum and the rest will be part of a new printing workshop. The museum shop sells books, stationery, and paper, including chiaroscuro watermarked papers. These items are made both within the museum and at the Miliani Mill. The sheets made at the mill are all 100% cotton; all of the sheets bearing their watermark and name in the corner are handmade. Paper has been produced in Fabriano, without interruption, since the thirteenth century. The knowledge of papermaking has thus been passed down directly from the first papermakers to those working today. Retired hand papermakers from the Miliani mill, some with a half century of experience, teach the papermakers at the Museum. It takes seven or eight years to become completely proficient as a master papermaker. It takes ten years to master chiaroscuro watermarks—papermakers need to have the feel in their hands for the thickness of the pulp, to detect the gram-weight in order to make identical sheets. There are now three full-time hand papermakers at the museum; more will be needed.  Master papermaker Roberto Rapanotti told me about his own entry into the craft. While taking a two-year course in the study of paper, he paid a visit to the museum. During the tour he made a sheet of paper and, with this simple act, he became deeply interested. He heard that the museum was looking for a papermaker, applied for the job, and was hired. Signor Rapanotti likes to calmly explain to people what he is doing and enjoys passing on the information. He particularly likes working with children; he has discovered he has a lot of patience. He finds it satisfying to spend hours tranquilly making paper, and is happy every morning to go to work as a papermaker. He has worked at Fabriano for ten years, the first few as an apprentice. He credits his mentor, Vincenzo Bucciarelli, with teaching him well about papermaking, saying: "I am indebted to him. The experience with him made me a good papermaker." Despite this, Signor Rapanotti acknowledges that "one is always learning new things about it.” Children coming to the Museum for educational programs get to pull a sheet with a master papermaker. When they leave, they take their sheets and documents certifying them as “mastro cartaio.” In July of this year, the Museum introduced a new program, in which master papermakers teach groups of two to four students in the mornings. Afternoons, the students are free to explore Fabriano and its surroundings. This program was launched at the request of university instructors and art school teachers. They sought the opportunity for their students, who did not have any other means to learn the craft. Papermaking in Fabriano has deep roots and the city and its public Museum hope to engage anyone interested in their celebration of paper. With the energetic and dynamic Giorgio Pellegrini and papermakers like Roberto Rapanotti, who are passionate about sharing the beauty of paper with others, papermaking is quite active in Fabriano. La Valchiera, according to dedicated papermaker Francesco Proietti, owes a debt of its own to the resources that Bevagna researchers found in Fabriano. Judging by the number of people who have spoken excitedly to me about the Bevagna mill—among them a vice-mayor, a bookbinder, a family with young children on an outing, and many others—papermaking is clearly fascinating for Italians in general.  One other papermaking site in Italy deserves brief mention. The historic Cartiera Magnani, in Pescia, has a small museum of watermarks, with a very charming wooden maquette of all aspects of a medieval papermill. When I visited Pescia in 1997 I found that the public no longer had access to the ancient mill, although there were still tours of the museum. (An article by Linda Samson in the Summer 1994 issue of Hand Papermaking describes the mill and its story.) The history of Italian papermaking is rich, and the ongoing allegiance of towns, families, scholars, and schoolchildren is obvious. With the critical participation of younger papermakers who have devoted their careers to carrying on the tradition, one can hope for a healthy future for Italian handmade paper.  Francesco Proietti, Mastro CartaioLa Valchiera, Via dell’Anfiteatro, 7, 06031 Bevagna (PG), ItalyWrite or call for appointment. Phone 0742 361189. I have only traveled to Bevagna by car. It is not accessible by train, but it is very near Assisi. English not spoken. Museo della Carta e della Filigrana, Largo F.lli Spacca, 60044 Fabriano, (AN), ItalyHours Tuesday-Saturday 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Sundays and holidays, April 1 to September 30, 10 A.M. to 12 noon, and 4 P.M. to 7 P.M. Shorter Sunday and holiday hours in winter. Phone 0732.709297, fax 0732.709240, email info@museodellacarta.com, website www.museodellacarta.com. You can call ahead for an English-language tour of the museum. The Rome-to-Ancona train line stops at the Fabriano station.