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Show RJASRETERVAT TH US AN ANCIEN I EUROPEA AN SIGNIFICANC O TH WATERMARK AN AMERICA MANUSCRIP BOO PAPER HE study of watermarks attracted licele attention until th carly eighteenth century when several writers on typographi increasing interest in their study difficult is the study of old watermarks that, though several antiquaries devoted their lives to the subject, no writer has ever entirely fathomed the mysteries or complexities of these ancient devices. Almost every scholar who has written on the subject has advanced a different theory of their origin, utility, and meaning Their symbolic aspect has been dealt with thoroughly, and numerous compilers have reproduced and indexed for us thousands o the antique papermarks, but without any definite theory as t their inception and use It has been suggested that these old devices may have been use solely as marks of identification for sizes of moulds and the pape formed thereon, or as trade marks of the papermakers who fashioned them, Others have advanced the theory that they may hav been employed in a purely symbolic sense, as Harold Bayley® set forth in his books dealing with the semciotic significance of th old papermakers' and printers' marks and emblems. According t Mr. Bayley the watermarks of the Middle Ages were employed b 1 Th seBacon, Lo ndon, 100 e The Lost Language of Symbolicm. I/andon‘ 912, (2 vols. Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |
