International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Nina Voutova
National Museum of History, Sofia, Bulgaria; 
[e-mail]
Symbols in Watermarks – Possible Interpretations
As it is well known, the major distinguishing feature of the handmade paper is the existence 
of images incorporated in the manufactured form and visible against a light source as a result of the 
thinning of the paper pulp. Namely these images – watermarks – stand a subject of study, as they 
are decisive in the dating of the manuscripts that, due to various reasons, lack a precise writing date.
Aside of this most important function of the watermarks, the question of the semantics of 
the images is of scientific interest, which is the subject of this study. According to the traditional 
interpretation of the watermarks, the images are basically a distinctive mark - a trade mark of the 
paper manufacturers – and, of course, this is true. However, one other basic function of them is to 
mark both the quality of the paper and the dimensions of the leaf.

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Filigranology that deals with the paper parameters, and most of all, with the watermarks, 
is not an exact science – as this is neither possible, nor necessary having in mind the object of its 
study. The research in this direction gives good results and the dating of manuscripts on the basis of 
filigranological material is certainly a reliable starting point for the scientific analysis of the paper 
literature heritage. There are, however, many disputable points, and it seems that the question of 
the symbolics of the images of the watermarks is one of the most difficult to solve. This is one of 
the reasons we believe that the research in this direction should continue, as this will give to the 
schoolers more and more reliable tools as for the filigranological data and its interpretation.
We made an attempt here to classify the images in accordance with their symbolic meaning 
imparted in them, and to establish whether, and to what extent the choice of paper bearing certain 
watermark was related to the contents of the corresponding manuscript. Special attention is given 
to the manuscripts written by one writer on one and the same paper bearing one and the same 
watermark. The combinations of watermarks excerpted from the paper used for the writing of one 
manuscript by two or more writers are also pointed out.
The study is based on the filigranological analysis of Greek manuscripts from 14
th
and 15
th
centuries, and the filigranological material for Slavonic manuscripts of the same period is applied 
as a comparative.