New-York tribune., 1909-05-23


The reader who holds up to the light a sheet
# notepaper or 4 page in book and so beholds
ans q those devices which ara known as water
marks. would hardly be disposed to attach any
great significance to what he sees He viii dis
-.-niss i as a mere trade mark or perhaps he VIII
recognize il as a little touch possessing per
sonal out not important character. Thus he
u9ay find IN some luxurious and limited edition
- his fayorite author that the initials Of that
author have been used a watermark- 1t Is
not the layman alone who would regard this
familiar item in the making Of paper from a
ril.Eter-of-fact point Of view. NJ BriQuet who has
published q great dictionary Of waternarks, con-
tanning 1912 facsimles Of designs employed
from about the year 1882 down 70 160o. treats
Ih.m all as trade marks To this, however. Mr..
RayIey demurs. and he has written very in
-erestins book to demonstrate that the water
marx had its origin in religious purpose and
j. 10 he considered as sort OF emblem. exert
lug a weighty influence in European history
Though his argument is not altogether convinc-
ms. Il has its plausible points
In the frst place. this author would associate
with the making of paper in the thirteenth cen
Jury numbers Of those AIbigenses and other
h.retics who were driven by Catholic persH-
csltion to cherish their principles in secret How
could they give hope and encouragement TO one
..uother without incu-ring ecclesiastical wrath?
They could put into the paper that they manu-
fac-u-ed certain emblems which, disseminated
throughout the civilized world would mutely
bear to heretics everywhere message Of com
fort Hence the warcrmarks which Mr.. Bayley
discusses thousands Of silent parallels" Illus
trating religious ideas Does one Of them rep
resent 2 unicorn? Then il is the emblem Of the
t,atEa-i, the pure ones because the unicorn
has long been recognized as the symbol Of pur-
- md E-afe TX in he nau a I
. ladder IS emblenatic Of Jacobs ladder. one in
-ha form Of a pelican piercing its breast is an
emblem Of self-sacriice dove Is significant Of
The Holy Spirit and through endless
series There are eEnblen7s Of persecution and
preaching among these old watermarks. and
there are others in which Mr.. Bayley finds new
evidence Of the sympathy Of the Provencal
trouladoUrs for the sects pursued by the Church
of Rome In still another division Of his subject
5le traces EraterTnarks commemorative Of edu-
lati0nal movements, and. in short, he invests
his examples easily enough with a meaning far
richer than that Of a mere trade mark 1t is
Interesting 70 note that, as a matter Of fact the
ean1e symbols were used by paper makers wide
y separated in time and space, additional
proof that the Watermarks were indeed what
Nj Bayley calls them, thought fossils or
-tfioueht-crystaIs" One can readily believe
that 70 the exiled heretic for example, a page
bearin- one Of these designs fraught with
= certain high stimulus Remembering also
hat opposition to Rome was necessarily slow
and secret al affair Of conspiracy il IS credible
114t the watermark may have had specific
function IL the grand work Of reformation, that
i may have been soWn broadcast like much
seed At the same time the hypothesis obvious
y needs further support
Nj Bayley proceeds from his fairly plausible
Identification Of the watermarks with heretical
sets and from his demonstration that printers
IL the Middle 4 ges used devices similar to those
u the paper makers, 10 the assertion that the
awakening kns the Renaissance the
direct result Of an influence deliberately and
tradItiorally exercised by paper makers, print
CTS, cubblers and other artisans From this
proposition there flows another-namely, that
The nursing mother Of the Renaissance, and
coIlseC ueutly Of the Reformation, not, as
hitherto assumed, Italy, but the Provencal dis
rrict Of France" He believes that history viii
sventually accept these ideas which, as he him
sell admits are novel and subversive," but his
v.rv taking conjecTures nevertheless VIII re-
quIre. before they accepted much greater
support than Ile can produce II IS one
thing TO regard ms watermarks as thought
s1irnuIators" and another 10 find in them testi-
rnony to something Ike organized campaign
The symbolism OF which he makes so much
would seem be susceptible Of explanation on