Charles-Moïse Briquet

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Charles-Moïse Briquet

Charles-Moïse Briquet (born August 30, 1839 in Geneva , † January 24, 1918 in Geneva) was a Swiss paper dealer and paper researcher.

He became famous for his research on the history of paper and watermarks in the Middle Ages and early modern times / Renaissance . 1908 awarded him the University of Geneva the honorary doctorate . Briquet is one of the most important paper researchers.

Life

The scion of a Protestant family from Châlons-sur-Marne who emigrated to Switzerland for religious reasons in 1724, Briquet was born in Geneva, the second son of Barthélemy-Marc Briquet and Jeanne-Louise-Elisabeth Pâris. According to the family tradition, his father lived from the book and stationery trade. The educated and pious environment in which Briquet grew up gave him a love of literature. To learn German, he went to the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1848 , where he lived with a pastor named Haag. On his return in 1850 he entered a school that his uncle had founded in Plainpalais and stayed there until 1854. Although he would have liked to continue his studies, he followed his father's wish, who wanted to introduce him and his brother Edouard into business life, and began an apprenticeship at a perfume manufacturer. He stayed there for two years.

In November 1856 Briquet left his father's house and took a job in the La Bâtie paper mill near Geneva. There he completed his technical knowledge by learning how to make paper, which was very useful in his later research. In the years 1854 to 1857 he took scientific courses in addition to his work to supplement his studies. In 1857 he returned home and started in his father's company, first as an employee, then as a partner (from 1860). In 1866 he married Caroline-Marguerite Long; the marriage remained childless.

In addition to working in his father's business, Briquet took over and managed the publishing house Jean Dubois, which he had bought after his death. It specialized in Swiss lithographs , and while improving printing techniques, he also drew on his knowledge of the Swiss Alps gained as a result of his hobby mountaineering .

At the beginning of 1887 he retired from business life after more than twenty years.

His reputation and position also led him to hold public offices in his hometown. So he first became a member of the Society for Winter Provision, which was founded in Geneva in 1850. There he was treasurer, later (from 1856) secretary. In 1884 he joined the Ligue suisse contre l'Eau de Vie , which acted against alcoholism and whose secretary he was until 1888. He also took care of an institution whose job it was to provide employment for unemployed workers . In 1890 he was called on by the state to take part in a study on the problem of abandoned children, which led to a bill for the canton of Geneva . 1892-93 he was a member of the Société de secours et d'apprentissage and the Geneva Association des intérêts du Commerce et de l'Industrie . He had contacts with the Society of the Arts of Geneva and was awarded the silver medal in 1896 for his services as treasurer. He was also politically active, but never ran for office. He also remained true to his religious environment and was actively involved in the Union Nationale Evangélique .

He died blind and has been widowed since 1912 on January 24, 1918.

research

Briquet began to look at the history of the paper trade and manufacture in Switzerland soon after he had made an overview of the paper trade and manufacture in Switzerland for his own personal use. So in 1878 he began a job that would keep him busy until his death: the fruitless search for information on Swiss paper production in the Middle Ages led his research far beyond this original goal. After the publication of a first Notice historique sur les plus anciennes papeteries suisses (1883–1885), Briquet tried to prove to the professional world and especially to historians how important the research and use of watermarks can be for the dating of paper . To this end, he created descriptions that were as clearly structured as possible, which should only indicate the locations and dates of the most common watermark types. He tried to determine the first occurrence of watermarks and, using Swiss examples, came up with the year 1275 for the earliest evidence. In two later articles ( La légende paleographique du papier de coton and Recherches sur les premiers papiers utilisés en Occident et en Orient du Xe au XIVe siècle ) he came to some basic theses:

  • Cotton paper never existed (which analyzes under the microscope have shown, which historians had never undertaken). Writing materials could therefore only be divided into three categories, namely papyrus , parchment and paper .
  • Papers made from rags are around 100 years older than the dating attempts made up until then assumed. According to Briquet, they were already in use in the 10th century. Such rag paper was first used in the Orient and only became known in the West two to three centuries later.
  • The use of watermarked paper began in Western Europe in the 13th century. No watermarks were used in the Orient.

Since the dating of the paper by means of watermarks also made it possible to chronologically classify texts written on it, possibly undated, these works were of great importance not only for palaeography . Briquet's findings have been confirmed by research by other scientists. With the help of a microscope, two Austrian historians were also able to prove that the textiles used for the production consisted mainly of hemp and linen fibers that were glued together with wheat or buckwheat starch.

As a result, Briquet published a monograph on the papers and watermarks of the archives in Genoa in 1888 , in which he included drawings of over 500 medieval watermarks. In 1892, in the monograph De la valeur des filigranes du papier comme moyen de déterminer l'âge et la provenance de documents non datés , which sparked various protests, he again emphasized the connection between watermarks and dating problems in documents.

While traveling all over Europe , he collected thousands of watermarks with the help of his wife. His work earned him a reputation among experts, due to which he wrote the booklet for an exhibition on the history of paper art organized in 1900 by the well-known paper manufacturer Augustin Blanchet. He also became a member of the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève and a corresponding foreign member of the Société nationale des Antiquaires de France . While his eyesight was already waning, he published his main work, Les Filigranes , in 1907 . Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600 . In 1908 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Geneva.

Completely blind in the last 10 years of his life and widowed since 1912, he still worked and dictated another monograph in addition to his memoirs (on the paper mills in the Tulles area). After his death, the part of his estate relating to his research went to the Geneva library , where the documents can be viewed.

Fonts

The dictionnaire des filigree

Briquet collected a total of more than 40,000 watermarks, 16,112 of which were reproduced in the various editions of the Dictionnaire . These illustrations were all based on hand drawings by Briquet, which he made in pencil on tracing paper . This procedure remains one of the most reliable and fastest.

He created a classification of the watermarks according to motif groups: ox heads, unicorns, letters, coats of arms ... He listed all variants, but only had the most common ones printed. Its directory enables the identification or at least the approximate classification according to origin and date of a paper. But it also shows the spread of paper in Europe. Among other things, it can be inferred from him that Italian papers were used throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.

The main points of criticism of the Dictionnaire essentially concern the nomenclature and the classification of some watermarks. The terminology is often shaped by the use of heraldry and makes it difficult for researchers in other disciplines to use the work, especially with regard to watermarks in the form of coats of arms.

The work found a supplementary and expanding follow-up collection in the finding aids published by Gerhard Piccard from 1961–1977 .

expenditure

  • 1907, Geneva (reproduction of 16 112 watermarks in real size, which allows reliable comparisons; 4 volumes)
  • 1923, Leipzig (with brief biographical information on C.-M. Briquet from Dr. John Briquet; watermark in real size; 4 volumes)
  • 1977, reprint of the 1923 edition with reduced reproduction size of the watermarks (4 volumes).
  • 1997, further reprint of the 1923 edition (still with reduced watermark size; 4 volumes).

Other works

(only for watermarks and paper; the works about mountains and mountaineering are missing here)

  • Notices historiques sur les plus anciennes papeteries suisses, L'Union de la papeterie, Lausanne, 1883, n ° 8 et 12; 1884, n ° 2 to 12; 1885, n ° 2 à 7.
  • La légende paléographique du papier de coton, Genève, 1884 (travail d'abord publié dans le journal de Genève du 29 octobre 1884).
  • De quelques industries dont le papier est la base, Genève, 1885 (communication faite à la classe d'industrie et du commerce de Genève).
  • Recherches sur les premiers papiers employés en Occident et en Orient du Xe au XIVe siècle, Paris, 1886 (extrait des mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, T. XLVI).
  • Papiers et filigranes des archives de Gênes, 1154–1700, Genève, 1888 (extrait des Atti della Società Ligure di storia Patria, t. XIX, fasc. 2).
  • De l'utilité des filigranes du papier et de leur signification, à propos d'un récent procès, Berne, 1888.
  • Le papier arabe au moyen-âge et sa fabrication, Berne, 1888 (extrait de l'Union de la Papeterie, n ° du mois d'Avril et de septembre 1888).
  • De la valeur des filigranes du papier comme moyen de déterminer l'âge et la provenance de documents non datés, Genève, 1892 (extrait du Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève, t.1er, livre 2nd Ce texts est reproduit intégralement dans le Moniteur de la papeterie française dans les n ° du 1er décembre 1892, 15 janvier et 1er février 1893).
  • Sur le papier usité en Sicile, à l'occasion de deux manuscrit en papier dit de coton, Palerme, 1892.
  • Le papier et ses filigranes; compte rendu des plus récents travaux publiés à ce sujet, Paris, 1894 (extrait de la Revue des Bibliothèque, n ° Juillet 1894).
  • Associations et grèves des ouvriers papetiers en France aux XVII et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1897 (extrait de la Revue Internationale de Sociologie, 5e années, n ° 3, Mars 1897)
  • Les anciennes papeteries du duché de Bar et quelques filigranes barrois de la seconde moitié du XVe siècle, Besançon, 1898 (Extrait du Bibliographe moderne, n ° 1)
  • Notice sur le recueil de filigranes ou marques de papiers présentés à l'Exposition rétrospectives de la papeterie, Paris, 1900, Genève, 1900.
  • La date de trois impressions précisée par leurs filigranes, Besançon, 1900 (extrait du Bibliographe moderne, 1900, n ° 2).
  • La papeterie su le Rhône à Genève et les papiers filigranés à l'écu de Genève, Genève, 1901 (extrait de Nos anciens et leurs œuvres, recueil genevois, t. 1er, p. 70 à 76).
  • Notions pratiques sur le papier, Besançon, 1905 (extrait du Bibliographe moderne, 1905, n ° 1 et 2).
  • Les filigranes, dictionnaire historique des marques de papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600, Genève, 1907 (4 volumes et plus de 16 112 relevés de filigranes avec notices).
  • Les filigranes ont-ils un sens caché? une signification mystique ou symbolique?, Besançon, 1916 (Extrait du Bibliographe moderne, 1909, n ° 5 et 6).
  • Les moulins à papier des environs de Tulles, Besançon, 1912 (Extrait du Bibliographe moderne, 19011, n ° 6).
  • Quelques faits nouveaux concernant les filigranes, in Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie de Genève, Genève, 1913, t. III, p. 357-359.
  • Le symbolisme des filigranes, Besançon, 1916 (Extrait du Bibliographe moderne, 1914–15, n ° 4 and 6).

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