The Torrente Pescia Maggiore originates in the mountains to the north of the Valdinievole, a geographic area comprised of the valleys of the Torrente Nievole and the Pescia Maggiore and Minore. "Pescia" is a distortion of the Lombard word for stream or torrent: pehhia. The city of Pescia, built over the site of a temple to Mars, therefore, bears the name of its most important asset, the waters that supplied energy to numerous fulling mills. Such mills were easily adapted for the production of paper. The hammer beater that was converted to pulp macerated fabric was the same as the fulling hammer, the only difference being the addition of brass studs to the heads, an improvement that hastened the hydration of rags. Fulling mills capable of beating rags for paper already existed in the 13th century, perhaps earlier, but from whence came the papermakers and papermaking technology? The Fabriano mills in Umbria were active in 1276, and are said to be the first in Italy. Cartiere Enrico Magnani, of Pescia, begs to differ. A monograph, published by the company in 1960, rebuts the primacy of the Umbrian mill, and suggests its own. The author of the tract, a member of the Magnani family too modest to give his name, theorizes that the craft might have come to the Valdinievole via Sicily, where it was brought by the Arabs, papermakers since the eighth century, and hence to Amalfi. Amalfi and Naples were governed in the early thirteenth century by Frederick II, Emperor of the Regno di Sicilia, one of the most extraordinary rulers ever. He surrounded himself with scholars of all disciplines, nationalities, and religious convictions. He founded the University of Naples, and hosted Leonardo di Pisa, who introduced algebra and Arabic numerals to Western civilization. Italian poetry had its birth in Frederick's court. Such a patron of the arts and sciences would certainly have encouraged papermaking in his kingdom. In 1221 he banned the use of paper for public documents (for archival reasons, perhaps), which suggests paper must have been plentiful, domestically fabricated, and in use for many years. A document from the year 1289 refers to a papermill in Amalfi, and it can be assumed that it existed before that date. Paper technology could also have arrived in Italy by western trade routes. A three-way contract between Mese di Lucca, Marchisio di Camogli, and a laborer, now in the archives of the city of Genoa, dated 1235, bound this laborer, referred to as a "gualtiero" (fuller), to Mese di Lucca for one year. During this time he was to make paper and Marchisio di Camogli was to pay di Lucca twelve denari for each day that this gualtiero practiced his craft. It would seem, therefore, that paper was already being made in Lucca in 1235. In this case, papermaking in Tuscany would predate papermaking in Fabriano by approximately forty years or more. The idea is very appealing. We know that paper "such as cannot be found anywhere else in the civilized world" was being made in Xativa (now Jativa) north of Valencia, Spain, in 1150. Valencia was, and still is, a major port on a major maritime trade route, as was, and is, Genoa. It is possible that the technology came to Italy for the first time in the person of a papermaker lured away from a Spanish mill by promises of lucrative recompense, or by force. Perhaps this contracted papermaker, then, came to Genoa by sea, and was conscripted to a man from Lucca. Perhaps he was not the first. At that time Pescia was governed by the rich and powerful city of Lucca. Was this papermaker actually employed in one of the revamped fulling mills on the Pescia Maggiore? A document dated 1224 in the Pistoia Archive deals with a difference of opinion between Rinforthatus, Procurator of the Commune di Pistoia, and the Abbot of Fucecchio. Rinforthatus shows the Abbot some letters written on "carta bambacia" (rag paper). This abbot was directly dependent on the Vicariate of Pescia, and it can be surmised that the paper was made in Pescia, pushing the date for the first paper manufactured in the area more than ten years earlier. In any case, paper has been made in Pescia for a long time. A craftsman named Stoldo is recorded as having been commissioned to adapt several fulling mills into papermills ("...gualchieres cause faciendi cartas bombicinas...") in 1319. Whether these were the first mills to undergo such modifications or merely new competition for one or more established mills with a steady and profitable trade in paper is conjectural. The first mention of the Magnani establishment, "Le Carte" is in 1500. The name "Le Carte" (The Papers) is a corruption of the mill's original name, "alla gualtiera" (at the fulling mill). An account book from the printing office of San Iaccopo di Ripoli for the years 1474-1483 notes the acquisition of several types of paper, including papers from Pescia with the watermark of a pair of glasses and another marked with a glove. As printing expanded across Europe, printers were drawn to sources of quality papers at reasonable prices, which encouraged the development of local mills. By the seventeenth century there were fifty-two active vats in Pescia, of which twenty-four belonged to the Magnani family. The number of papermills in the Cantone di Pescia declined from forty-two to twenty-one by 1811 (the twelfth year of Napoleonic occupation), largely due to the economic rigors of war. The twenty-one mills employed 700 workmen, including 350 papermakers, 60 sizers, and 10 salesmen. The papermakers were paid by the risma (ream, 480 sheets), each papermaker making approximately fifteen reams a day. At that time the annual production of paper in the Valdinievole was 15,000 pounds, a third of the entire paper production of Tuscany. Enrico di Giorgio Magnani became director of the Cartiere Magnani in 1840. After improving the old mill, he began construction in 1860 of a new mill at S. Frediano d'Aramo, further north on the Pescia Maggiore, where water was more plentiful. Under his guidance, papers made at the Magnani mill reached the height of excellence. They were praised at the London exhibition of 1866 and continued to uphold the highest standards of quality, even as papermaking moved into the machine age. A Tour of the Mill I have been visiting the site, Le Carte, four kilometers north of the city of Pescia in Pietrabuona, on and off for the past seven years, first as a student, then as professor, translator, and, lastly, journalist. Angelo Vezzani has been my guide each time I make this pilgrimage. He does the tours on his own time out of love for the craft he learned from his father, Silvio Vezzani, who was employed at the hand mill from 1911 until the day he passed away in 1981. (Silvio is portrayed at the vat in a chiaroscuro watermark of papermakers at work.) Angelo began at Magnani in 1945, when he was fifteen years old, and retired in 1983 due to injury. A quiet, thoughtful man, he is very proud of his small role in the history of paper. The mill itself is a limestone and pietra serena structure with two floors. The walls vary from one to two meters thick. Windows are small; doors, narrow; and it is very, very cold inside. My questions to Vezzani hung in puffs of vapor. The vats and beaters are located on the ground floor. The first room contains a pair of cylindrical vats, hewn from single blocks of stone, each heated by a "pistolet", a steam pipe that curls around the bottom to warm the pulp. The reservoir for recharging the vat is at the side. Paper sheets are still formed as they were in the seventeenth century, with two moulds and one deckle, by two workmen, the vatman and coucher. The beater room is behind the vat room. Here, in groups of three, huge wooden trip hammers with brass-studded heads wait in perpetual silence. They were replaced by the Hollander beater, installed in the mill shortly after the end of French occupation, around 1815. Built to last, the trough, approximately a meter deep and wide and two meters long, was carved from a single piece of stone. In addition to its extraordinary size, and the considerable fatigue entailed in moving the monster into the mill (a wall had to be removed) the beater figures in the annals of the papermaking revival in the United States. With obvious pleasure, and reserved Tuscan amusement, Vezzani told me of a tour he had given to two papermakers from Indiana several years ago. After asking permission, the man had climbed into the beater to take measurements. A steep stone staircase leads to the drying loft. The dusty shelves are lined with stacks of seconds remaindered from editions of paper dipped for the giants of modern printing, among them Giovanni Mardersteig and Alberto Tallone. Once, all finishing operations were executed here: drying, sizing, cold and hot pressing, storage, and packing. The wooden floors, larger windows, and high ceilings make the second floor as warm and comfy as the first is cold and hostile. I concluded that the only good thing about being a vatman in the sixteenth century was the pay. The moulds and sample papers are stored in one corner of this floor. Well worth taking time to see is a large mould graced with two watermarks, elegant portrait busts in medallions, the likenesses of none other than Napoleon I (with a laurel wreath, a la a Roman emperor) and Marie Louise of Austria, his second wife. The paper was commissioned to celebrate the couple's nuptials in 1810. The most interesting part of the collection, from a technical standpoint, are the chiaroscuro watermark moulds and the paper made using them, which can be examined side-by-side to determine how different effects were achieved. Chiaroscuro Watermarks Chiaroscuro (light-and-shade) watermarks were developed in the mid-nineteenth century by William Henry Smith. With this process, any gradation of tone or modeling can be imitated by altering the thickness of the paper pulp that settles on the mould. The effect is visible only when the paper is held up to the light. This process found its ultimate use in currency papers, as the mark incorporated in the paper is much more difficult to duplicate than intricate engraving. The craft of matrice-making for these watermarks is very specialized and, for the most part, handed down within a family. The sculptor must not only have drafting and modeling skills, but an intimate knowledge of the papermaking process. The original design for a chiaroscuro mark is sculpted in wax, illuminated by a light from behind. Lighter areas in the wax correspond to lighter areas in the watermark. There can be no undercuts or sharp points. The finished wax mould is dusted with powdered graphite and electrotyped, a process that produces a metal coating on the wax through the action of electronic current. The result is a copper intaglio image that is a female version of the wax image. The wax is pried away and the mould reinforced with lead. Then a cameo, or male mould, is made from the intaglio, the female mould. The second mould is also reinforced with lead. Woven copper wire larger than the surface of the papermaking mould, with forty-eight to sixty wires to the inch, is placed in the female mould and gently formed to the contours with light blows from a rubber hammer with a wedge-shaped tip. Once the design has been worked into the wire, it is taken out of the mould and heated until it is violet. It is then replaced in the mould, the male mould is positioned on top, and the whole is pressed. The wire mesh is then cut to the size of the papermaking mould and attached like any mould covering. Small adjustments to the watermark can be made by sewing patches of woven wire to the underside of the highlights, or widening the holes in a dark area with a needle. Pulp for successful chiaroscuro marks is short-fibered and requires a long beating time. The shorter the fibers, the more pronounced the three-dimensional effect will be in the final paper. The recipe given by Vezzani is cotton linter with a small percentage of abaca, for strength and luminosity. Conclusion The Magnani mill Le Carte began its existence as a fulling mill and was probably converted to paper production in the early 13th century. Historical references point to a large and productive papermaking industry on the Pescia Maggiore that would pre-date the first mention of the mills at Fabriano in 1276 by forty or more years. The evidence indicates that the Magnani mill may have been the first papermaking establishment in Italy, but unfortunately no conclusive documentation, like that of the Umbrian mill, has been found in local archives. Watermarks have identified papers and papermakers since they first appeared in Italy in 1282. These marks exploit the opaque property of paper, that can conceal in the thickness and thinness of each sheet an image, seen only when the sheet is held up to the light. Chiaroscuro marks are the ultimate achievement in this medium, in that values, as well as effects of light on dark, are rendered through subtle control of the density of the paper as it is formed. The Cartiere Magnani has historically been and remains today one of Italy's and the world's most important papermills. Fine art and currency papers are still produced there on a daily basis with care and craftsmanship, and it is one of a handful of mills that continues to adopt chiaroscuro watermarking for unique papers and banknotes. Cartieri Enrico Magnani should be recognized and appreciated for its dedication to keeping the craft alive.         ) Charles Singer, et al., Storia della Tecnologia, [A History of Technology] (Torino: Paolo Boringhieri, 1962), Vol. 2 Le Civilta Mediterranee e il Medioevo, "Filatura e Tessitura" by R. Patterson. 218. ) Cartiere Enrico Magnani, ed., Cartiere Toscane. Pescia: Stamperia A. Benedetti, 1960. ) Dard Hunter. Papermaking, The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, 2nd ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1978, 473. ) Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, 1949 ed. S.v. "Carta" by Ottovino Bertolini. 183. Illus. LV. The first European document on paper, dated 1109, is housed in the Archivio di Stato in Palermo. It is a decree in Greek and Arabic written by the Countess Adelaide, first wife of Roger I of Sicily. ) Magnani, 7. ) Hunter, 473. ) Magnani, 9-10. ) Ibid., 11. ) Ibid., 17. ) Anne Basanoff. Itenerario della Carta dall'Oriente all'Occidente e sua Diffusione in Europa. (Milano: Edizioni Polifilo, 1965), 34. The account book is conserved in the Fondo Magliabechiano of the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze. ) The first book printed in Pescia is the Confessione of S. Bernardino di Siena, dated 1485, by Florentine Francesco Cenni. He was joined in 1488 by other printers, Nicolo Siculo and Sigismondo Rodt, a German. ) Magnani, 35. ) Le Cartiere Enrico Magnani - Pescia. Introduction to the sample catalog. ) The mill is at the far side of town. Should you attempt a visit via public transportation, ask the bus driver to let you off at Le Carte, and make sure that enough of your fellow passengers have heard to remind him. They will protect your interests, though not out of kindness (the Tuscan is a compulsive joker--he will send you miles out of your way for amusement) but because they are obliged to heckle the bus driver, who is a sort of talk-show host on wheels, giving each self-styled comedian a moment on the stage as he weaves up the narrow mountain road. ) My descriptions are no rival to a visit in person to Le Carte. Write to Signor Settimi, Direttore/ Cartiere Enrico Magnani, S.P.A./ Via S. Fediano d'Aramo/ 51017 Pescia, or call (0572) 405486 or 405512, within Italy, to make an appointment. ) Three names appear on contemporary Magnani marks: Casoni, who signs his work "L. C."; Savoia, "S."; and L. Filomena, "L. Filomena, Inc." ) Hunter, 474.

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