PARCHMENT PRODUCTION IN TIVOLI

The production of parchment in Tivoli, in the classical period, is attested by the ruins of a plant for the calcination of skins: the calcinarium, found in the area of Colle Nocello, within a roman villa.

This craft did not stop during the difficult period of the barbarian invasions.

• It is known that "only once the levy imposed had been paid with the gold and silver derived from melting down the statues of the gods that Alaric lifted his siege of Tivoli, and went away laden with stuffs and skins dyed purple". From this it may be deduced that the working of skins must have been of considerable importance, given that it formed such a notable part of Alaric's booty.

The sources at our disposal consist in the parchment manuscripts conserved in the ecclesiastical archives. In these we find reports of magistri (masters), including leatherworkers and shoemakers, pellipari and calçulari: the former are mentioned in 1207 and 1258, while the latter are cited in innumerable documents from the tenth century on.

• It seems quite reasonable to assume that parchment was produced in moderate quantities in the centuries of the early and high middle ages, when animal skins were the material most often used for manuscripts, replacing papyrus paper.
• The Papyri of the churches of Tivoli, in other words the earliest documents of the Regesto Tiburtino, were transcribed on parchment in the 13th century.

To be able to evaluate the degree of development of trade and crafts in tivoli we need to await the statutes of 1305.

• A large part of the various craftsmen or artifices (maestri) depended on their own Guild (corporation). They were registered in its matricula (list of members) and they elected two capita artis (guild heads) every six months.
• The degree of development reached by production and trade in the early years of the 14th century is attested by the political regime sanctioned by the statutes of 1305.
• In fact, in contrast to what happened in the towns of southern Lazio, where no institutional role within the civic government was recognized to the guilds, in Tivoli the capita artium formed part by law of the main town council and of the more restricted consilium speciale.
• this was a type of regime that closely resembled that of the main cities of italy, where the importance of trade and crafts determined the predomination of the trade organizations within the municipal government.
• Situated on the road leading to the Abruzzo and the Regno, Tivoli was an important cross-roads; its vicinity to rome facilitated trade and the absence of other towns within a radius of some tens of kilometres enabled it to play the role of economic capital already in the 13th and 14th century, as clearly documented in the following century.

The importance of Tivoli in commercial life found a kind of institutionalization in the creation of the Fair (Fiera).

• In the summer of 1393 the town council established that a fair should be held, during the eight days in which the visitors to Santa Maria Maggiore (adjacent to the present Villa d'Este) could benefit from the indulgence that Boniface IX had granted to the Franciscans. The approval of the new fair and immunity for all the negotiatores (merchants) who wished to go to Tivoli were obtained from the civic authorities of Rome on this occasion.
• The fair was held in the district of Santa Croce between the 8th and 15th September.
• The fair, or Feria Tyburis as it was called, continued to be held for many centuries, and the local notarial and cadastral registers attest that the various merchants involved in it also included the merchants of leather and of parchment.

The cadastral register of the district of San Paolo of 1467, apart from registering fourteen members of the guilds (artes) of the workers of iron, paper, cloths and spices, also lists a further twenty members of craft or retail trade corporations. Of all the (so to say) "minor" craft activities, the sectors that seem to have had the largest number of members were those of the working of leather and building.

• With ten members, equivalent to over 6% of the craftsmen registered, the ars calçulariae (guild of shoemakers) was the branch with the most members.
• The calçularii are attested at every social level, both among the less well to do and at the top of the social scale: to Domenico di Paolo Marsi, a large landowner and third largest taxpayer in the district, is registered a sum of 80 lire, invested in the ars calçulariae.

Antonio del Re reported the presence of "three shops for [the production of] dressed leather, soles and parchment paper".

• So parchment was still being produced in Tivoli in the early 17th century, when its use in the world of books was especially connected with bookbinding.

In the correspondence of Superiors we find references to skins, so it is probable that some production of parchment still continued in the town of Tivoli, by now famous for its production of paper.