 | Outline of the Project |
| Progress of the Project |
| History of the Watermark Collection |
| Online Presentation |
| Conference in November 2004 |
| Contact / Enquiries |
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atermarks offer reliable information on how to date paper sources of the late Middle Ages and early modern times. In case the date is missing on the document, watermarks allow precise dating. The first step is to search for an identical watermark taken from a dated source. The year when this document was created can also be assumed for the undated document, as paper used to be an expensive good which was bought and used up within a couple of years. The research on watermarks is mainly used for the description and cataloguing of manuscripts and early prints.
efore watermarks can be used for dating purposes, identical pieces from dated texts have to be gathered. The watermark collection "Piccard" at the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart consists of 92.000 records, which makes it the largest collection of watermarks in the world. It is named after Gerhard Piccard (1909-1989), who had gathered and edited the collection over four decades. Since 1951 the collection has been stored at the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart.
he international reputation of Piccard's watermark collection is based on the printed finding aids, which have been published since 1961. Until 1997 as many as 17 finding aids in 25 volumes were published. During that time the quality of the publications had been improved. The images shown changed from depicting general types to original drawings (types are gained from several non published copies of single watermarks). The first two finding aids "Crown" and "Bull's head" only contained abstract types of watermarks and no original drawings. Anyway, from the publication of the third finding aid "Tower" onwards single records were being printed. However, only less than half of the already collected available records of the watermark "Tower" have been published in this finding aid. Piccard, himself, set up a supplementary card file for the already published motifs.
he printed volumes did not even represent two thirds of the whole "Piccard" collection. One third of it - about 37.000 records - had not yet been printed. Due to the minor quality of the few remaining manuscripts it was decided that a printed publication was out of the question. As a continuation of the publication of "Piccard" was emphatically requested by complementary sciences (especially by the manuscripts departments) an online publication was planned.
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