subject: Paper making in Amalfi [print this page] Paper making in Amalfi Paper making in Amalfi
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The precise location where they were born the first paper is not yet known. It 'sure that there was a contact between Amalfi and the Arabs, has reached its first to the Amalfi "bambagina", the paper cutouts made of rags. This name comes from El-Arab city Marubig, which had a monopoly of production.In a decree of Frederick II (died 1250) precluded the curie of Naples, Sorrento and Amalfi bambagina to use the card for the drafting of public documents. Required the use of parchment because it was more durable.The paper was worked by hand until 1700 when, with industrialization, is spent working with machines. At the end of the eighteenth century there were sixteen active cards, which work only a dozen today.In the Valle dei Mulini, Amalfi, is the Museum of handmade paper. It consists of an old mill and a library with about 3,000 texts on the origins of the paper.Several steps were for the working paper.
The raw material was made from rags, cotton, flax and hemp, harvested in stone vats called "pile", crushed and reduced to the form of mash with wooden hammers (hammer), the ends of which were placed the iron nails. The shape and size of these spikes determined the consistency of mush, and the thickness of the sheets of paper. The Hammers moved by the force of water falling on a wheel to the counterweight (Roton), drives a shaft (time).The prepared slurry was collected in a large bowl covered with tiles. In it put the "form", which had edged in wood (cash) and the watermark in the middle, consisting of a network of wires of brass or bronze. The watermark contains trademarks, which distinguish the various paper mills. These marks are visible in silhouette, symbolic representation of civic, religious and heraldic.The oldest leaves, the XIII and XIV century, had the emblem of the city or the eight-pointed cross and the emblems of ancient families.The mush, once attaccatasi form and drained the water, was transferred to a special wool felt. It was a pile of sheets of paper very wet, which alternated as many wool felts.
The stack was pressed by a wooden press to release the water.Subsequently, the sheets of paper were separated one by one from felt and brought in the "spreading" to be dried by air currents. That's why the spanditoi were built in the highest part of the paper mill. At the end of the sheets were ironed and grouped in bundles in the back room '"allisciaturo. In the eighteenth to hammer the battery was replaced by "machine" Dutch. In this way, the pulp was more refined and production increased. The new machine had large metal cylinders, on which were attached watermarks. The pressure of water flowing through pipes in walls, attacked the pulp to the watermarks. The pulp is removed and passed through two rollers for removing water felted.The paper was predried with a steam boiler.
The paper sheet produced was put out to dry further in spanditoi.The paper was used for documents of the Duchy of bishoprics, parishes, and to write deeds. It was used in the courts of the Angevin, Aragonese, the Spanish viceroy and the Bourbon court.That of Amalfi was very valuable and sought after. Today it is used for participation in weddings, for baptisms, first communions to, brochures, and to prepare for major works. Even the Vatican State uses the paper of Amalfi for his correspondence. You can watch the production process of the card by visiting Amatruda paper mill.
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