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Show EARLY WRITER e day after St. Lawrence when Jérg Tyrmann swore on oath to th Saints that he would help my progress materially and that for te years he would make paper only for me and my heirs and woul notinstruct anyone except at my sanction. But when the ten year are passed he may make paper for himself, but for no one else an he may then teach those who make paper for him, but for no on else, as long as he lives. 1 These men, like himself; were Germans, but with the skilled Ital 1an artisans Stromer felt that an extra precaution was essential, s he took them before a procurator named Conradus, and Stromer' sons, brother, and brother-in-law acted as witnesses to the affidavits The contract with the Italian workimen read: "In the yea 1399, Franciscus de Marchia, and Marcus, his brother, and hi manservant Bartholomeus pledged their loyalty to me and swor ©n oath to the Holy Saints that they would forever be faithful an Would not divulge the secrets of papermaking to anyone in all th German lands this side of the mountains of Normandy. The precautions taken by Stromer to guard his own interest rather excited the suspicions of the Italians, they felt that if the WWere 50 indispensable to the success of the paper mill it would b Better for them to control the enterprise than for Stromer to be th master. With this idea in view the Lombardians tried to hampe the paper mill on every side, hoping that Stromer would becom Weary and discouraged with the whole venture and lease the mil to them at a low figure so that they might operate it as they liked Continuing with his narrative Stromer wrote, "the Italians wer most troublesome the first year and did as they pleased and cause me many difficulties, not suffering the third wheel to run at all My first two wheels ran cighteen stampers and even these wer leftidle a great part of the time as the foreign workmen wished t Produce aslittle paper as possible so as to force me to let them hav the mill for a rent of 200 gulden a year. This T would not agree t ital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. All rights reserved |