Glossary

  • Chain lines - the visible vertical lines (almost always), spaced about 25-35 millimetres apart, resulting from the mould's 'heavy' chain wires (or simply chains). 
  • Coucher - the person (nearly always a man) who turned the mould - with the solution deposit on it - on to a piece of felt to deposit the sheet of paper, and then passed it back to the vatman, receiving the other mould (the twin) from the vatman.
  • Countermark - the second mark, usually found in the centre of the other half of the sheet of paper, which complements the main watermark. Oftentimes, the countermark has identifying elements of the paper maker. (see Watermark)
  • Crescents - three crescent moons are a clear sign that the paper in question originates from northern Italy and indicate its (high) quality. The three crescents, sometimes above the word 'REAL', are always of different sizes and point towards the centre of the sheet. The general use of the word 'REAL' (sometimes mirrored) in northern Italian papers means the paper was manufactured after 1774. (see Selenometry and images in About>User guide>Watermarks)
  • Folio (2º) - 1. common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once to form two leaves and four pages; 2. a book made this way (abbreviated 2º) or a book of this (approximate) size; 3. general term for a leaf in (especially) manuscripts and old books. 
  • Laid lines - the visible horizontal lines (almost always), spaced one millimetre or less apart, resulting from the mould's laid wires. 
  • Laid paper - as opposed to wove paper. Paper made using moulds of the laid pattern, where the wire mesh is fastened directly to the bars of the mould frame. The traditional laid pattern consists of a series of wide-spaced lines (chain lines, about 25-35 millimetres apart) parallel to the shorter sides of the sheet, and more narrowly spaced lines (laid lines, very close together: one millimetre or less apart) at right angles to the chain lines. 
  • MarP - MarP ### (Mar[ques]P[ortugal]) refers to the watermark in the catalogue pertaining to the sacred works of Marcos Portugal (‘Apêndice B - Marcas de água e tipos de papel‘ [Watermarks and paper-types] in António Jorge Marques, A obra religiosa de Marcos António Portugal [...]; see About>Bibliography). 
  • Mould - mounted on a wooden frame, it is a rectangular grid made of a wire mesh (like a sieve) used for making paper. (see Laid paper and Wove paper)
  • Mould side - the side of the paper sheet in contact with the mould (and with the felt).
  • Octavo (8º) - 1. common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet three times to form eight leaves and sixteen pages; 2. a book made this way (abbreviated 8vo or 8º) or a book of this (approximate) size.
  • Paper-type (PT) - the conjunction of a watermark (and/or corresponding twinmark) and a rastrology (format, number of staves, total and single spans). (see Rastrology)
  • Quarto (4º) - 1. common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet twice to form four leaves and eight pages (of oblong or upright format); 2. a book made this way (abbreviated 4to or 4º) or a book of this (approximate) size.
  • Quire - a pile of 24 or 25 sheets.
  • Rastrology - 1. the study of the use of the rastrum and, more commonly, rastra (multiple or compound rastrum), is a branch of musicological studies that uses information about the characteristics of rastra to help find the date, provenance and other related information of manuscript music materials. 2. the convention adopted here identifies a rastrology with four different kinds of information: the orientation of the folios (upright/vertical or oblong/horizontal), the number of staves per page, the total span of the staves and the span of each individual staff. The staves are the distinctive characteristic of music paper.
  • Rastrum (pl. rastra) - a five-pointed writing implement used in music manuscripts to draw parallel staff lines (staves) across a blank sheet of paper. Rastra is a similar implement, but able to draw two or more staves at a time (Jean and Eugene Wolf refer to it as 'compound rastrum').
  • Ream - 20 quires with a total of 480 (or 500) sheets.
  • Régleur - the professional who draws (or rules) the staves on the page for the purpose of writing music. 
  • Selenometry -  'the measurement of the moon(s)'. A method conceived (and coined) by Alan Tyson to easily compare (and distinguish) three crescents. It consists of taking two measurements:  xy and xz. (see images in About>User guide>Watermarks)
  • Sheet - the original rectangular piece of paper resulting from the solution coating that the vatman would uniformly distribute on the mould (so as to create an even texture). The process further involved removing the excess water, laying it on top of a slightly larger piece of felt (couching), pressing the resulting pile (post) to remove the remaining water, and drying each individual sheet of paper. These were still quite absorbent, so, to give it an impermeable surface, each sheet was dipped into a solution of animal gelatine (later with the addition of alum). The sheet was then dried once again. If the paper was intended for writing on, the sheet would be smoothed by rubbing or hammering. The finished sheets would be sorted into quires and reams.  
  • Sidemark - any marginal mark (near the edge of the paper sheet). A specific type of sidemark is the corner-mark. 
  • Twinmark (TM) - 1. the picture(s) or letters fashioned in wire and sewn on to the surface of the twin mould. 2. the corresponding marks left on the sheet of paper resulting from the paper being thinner. 
  • Vatman (or maker) - the person (nearly always a man) near the vat. The vatman would dip the deckle and mould into the solution in the vat, so that the resulting deposit on top of the mould would be a sheet of uniform texture. He would then pass the mould (without the deckle) to the coucher and receive the other (empty) mould (the twin). 
  • Watermark (WM) - 1. the picture(s) or letters fashioned in wire and sewn on to the surface of the mould. 2. the corresponding marks left on the sheet of paper resulting from the paper being thinner. 3. The main watermark when there are two marks in the centre of each half of the sheet. (See Countermark)
  • Wove paper - as opposed to laid paper. Paper manufactured using moulds containing a finely woven wire mesh, like cloth, with the wires spaced closely and evenly across each other with no discernible chain or laid lines. Invented around 1756, it did not come into wide use until near the end of the 18th century.