The paper-making tradition of Fabriano

The paper-making tradition

Villa Miliani, residence of the Miliani family of paper industrialists, contributed to making Fabriano synonymous with quality paper. Fabriano was the cradle of paper in Europe, and home to the innovative techniques of the master papermakers from the thirteenth century onwards.

In 1782, Pietro Miliani founded Cartiere Miliani, merging the local paper mills and factories and transforming them into a world leader in the sector.

Around 300 metres from the hotel is the Paper and Watermark Museum, housed in the monumental complex of the former Convento dei Domenicani. The museum presents seven hundred years of local paper-making tradition. Here we can visit the historic medieval fulling mill for the manufacture of handmade paper. It is a journey into the world of paper, through the knowledge of ancient paper-making techniques, with an extensive exhibition of watermarks and the evolution of the paper production process with new technological and innovative systems.

Paper and Watermark Museum

Starting from the hand manufacturing of paper, the multiple mallets, the gelatin glue, the vat, and the raw materials, the banknote paper, up to the exhibition of historical watermarks, you can trace the historical journey of paper.

Housed in the monumental complex of the former Convent of the Dominicans, recently restored, the Museum represents the image of seven hundred years of local paper tradition. In a large fourteenth-century room on the ground floor, the medieval paper mill for the hand manufacturing of paper has been reconstructed.

Fabriano Paper Pavillon

The Fondazione Fedrigoni Fabriano (Fedrigoni Fabriano Foundation), commissioned by Fedrigoni S.p.A., protects and manages the heritage inherited from the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano (Miliani Paper Mills of Fabriano). Over 500 linear meters of archival and library assets belonging to the Archive of the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano, the first “business archive” in Italy declared of considerable historical interest.

The documentary sources, dated from 1782, are organized and inventoried, and to these are added the collection of watermarks from 1782 to the present day, the photo library, with over 1,200 historical photographs, testimony to the industrial archaeological, architectural, and landscape heritage and the identity aspects of the paper society and culture since 1871; the library with 3,000 volumes. In 2016, the Foundation acquired the collection of 2,213 “ancient Fabriano papers” collected by the watermark expert Augusto Zonghi, dated from 1267 to 1798, highly sought after by paper scholars worldwide. Sent to the Paris International Universal Exposition in 1900 and defined there as “unique in the world” by the Judging Commission, it is a valid reference for research and studies on the history of paper and watermarks, one of the most important in Europe. Cultural heritage of inestimable value, a material testimony with the value of civilization.

The collection joins the watermark collection of the Archivio delle Cartiere Miliani (Miliani Paper Mills Archive), constituting the Corpus Chartarum Fabriano with papers from the 13th to the 21st century. Part of the documents, watermarks, and industrial paper archaeological assets are deposited under a loan-for-use agreement at the Museo della Carta e della Filigrana (Museum of Paper and Watermark) of Fabriano and Pioraco.

The ancient art of paper-making is united with innovation, bringing a tradition that is the beating heart of the city to the world.