The
Ranums'
Panat Times
Volume 1, redone Dec. 2014
My sketches of the watermarks in the papers used by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
I am publishing my sketches of the watermarks to be found in Marc-Antoine Charpentier's autograph manuscripts. Each watermark is identified by a letter, a number, or a symbol. These are the identifications that I used back in 1994 for my Vers une Chronologie .... and that are described verbally in that booklet, pp. 57-59.
Some words of caution:
The measurements are approximate, because I was not permitted to allow my ruler to come within an inch of the surface of these precious manuscripts.
The sketches are even more approximate, since tracing the watermarks was out of the question.
The raisins (bunches of grapes) that I sketched are extremely schematic: that is, the size of the individual grapes and the number of grapes in each row do not reproduce the actual watermark — which was extremely common in the 17th century and which varied from one forme in which "grape" paper was produced to the next.
The little superscript numbers above a few watermarks show the variant of that particular mark and are not part of the watermark itself.
A few sketches are incomplete because they were cut from the photocopy of made of the originals, and the originals are for the moment absent without leave. (I am thinking especially of paper "E," where part of the little bunch of grapes than hangs from the cartouche is missing; paper "6," where a cross of the Order of the Holy Spirit hangs from Colbert's coat of arms; and paper "**", which is almost illegible anyway.)
