OCR Text |
Show teach any man to make paper in any way at all. This took place on th Sunday next before St. Lawrence Day, in my room at the time of evenin prayer in the year 1390 when my son Jorg was present" Thus having th foreman's faithfulness assured Stromer proceeded to have the rest of hi employees take the same oath. He recorded in his chronicle that,"it wa on the day after St. Lawrence when Jorg Tyrmann swore on oath to th Saints that he would help my progress materially and that for ten year he would make paper only for me and my heirs and would not instruc ma anyone except at my sanction. But when the ten yearsare passed he thos make paper for himself but for no one else and he may then teac whomake pape for him, bu for no one else, as long as h lives. These men, like Stromer were Germans but with th skilled Italianartisans he fel anextra precaution essentia Sohe took them beforea procurator named Conradusan Stromer's sons, brother, an brother-in-aw acted as witnesses to the affidavits. Th contract with the Italian read thu Franciscus e Marchia, and Marcus his brother and his ( manservant Bartholomeus ~ The Stromer mill from an engravin pledged their loyalty tom in Schedel's "Liber Chronicarum, andsworeoncathtotheHol printed by Anthony Koburger,i Saints that they would forNiirnberg in the year 1493 ever be faithful and woul not divulge the secrets of papermaking to anyone in all the German land this side of the mountainsof Normandsy. The precautions taken by Stromer to guard his own interests rather excited the suspicionsof the Italians. They feltif they were soindispensabl o the success of the paper mill that it would be better for them to contro the enterprise than for Stromer to be the master. With this idea in view the Lombardians tried to hamper the paper mill on every side hopin Stromer would become weary of the whole venture and lease the mill them at a low figure for them to do with s they liked. Continuing wit his narrative Stromer wrote, "the Ifalians were most troublesome the firs year and did as they pleased and caused me many difficulties and woul not suffer the third wheel to run at all. My first two wheels ran eightee stampersand even these were left idle a great par of the time s the foreig 1 © 2005 Marriott Library U |