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about the watermarks
Watermark distribution in the
so-called cahiers “françois” (and in the "problematic" notebooks too)
I have summarized my notes so that
scholars can reconstruct the folded sheets of the notebook and deduce
whether an inner or outside sheet may have been replaced. (See my
Vers une Chronologie des œuvres de Marc-Antoine Charpentier,
Baltimore, 1994, pp. 24-29.)
In cahiers where more than one brand of paper was used, I either show
the paper, folio by folio, or else I mark the specific folio where the
unusual paper appears — which may (or may not) indicate a sheet inserted
into an existing cahier..
“marque” — that is, the watermark
that indicates size and quality: a crest (écu), a bunch of grapes (raisin),
a sundial (cadran), a crowned L (L couronné), and so forth
“contremarque” — that is, the
watermark that indicates the mill, usually in a rectangular cartouche
containing initials and, sometimes, a flower or a heart. (Measurements are
in centimenters, not inches.)
The boldfaced letter or number following marque or contremarque
indicates the paper, as described in my Vers une Chronologie, pp.
57-59.
My notes do not always distinguish between page and folio, so the number in
the first column is flexible, so to speak.
NOTE: In April 2006, while contributing to
the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles's Charpentier data bank, I made
a few changes in these pages. These changes are highlighted by
bold red type.
Cahier 1
Made entirely of A.
Cahier 2
9 a (this is half the outer sheet)
10-15 A
16-17 a (this is the other half of the
outer sheet)
Cahiers 3-4
Made entirely of A.
Cahier 5
35-42
b
43-44 † (this is a central folded sheet of
Jesuit paper with black staves)
46-53 b
Cahier 6
Made of paper
B, but fol. 62 may be C.
Cahier 7
Made of paper C, but fol. 68-69 are
D (they are a central folded sheet).
This is how I explain this notebook: In around May 1673, Charpentier
made the notebook with 5 sheets of C, and he copied the reposoir music
onto the first 4 folios. The verso was blank: on it he copied the
Simphonie devant Regina and another prelude, and two more preludes (one
of Easter 1674). In other words, by Jan.-Feb. 1674 the notebook was half
full, except for the verso of the fifth sheet. The next piece is the Messe pour plusieurs instruments au lieu d’orgue, which begins on the
back of the fifth sheet of C. Then, knowing that the mass was a rather
long work, Charpentier took a piece of paper D and put it into the
middle of the notebook and began to copy the mass — which ended up
filling all of cahier 7 and spilling over into cahier 8 (which was made
of a different batch of paper).
Cahier 8
Made entirely of E.
Cahier 9
In Vers une Chronologie I say this cahier is made of
c; but it is more
complex than that.
This is how I explain this notebook: Fols 1
and 2 are paper c, folded. Fol. 2 contains Sainte Anne. Its verso is
blank. Fols. 4 and 5 are another folded sheet of paper, with one watermark being
a very large raisin. Judith starts on 4 and
continues into cahier 10. In other words, Anne and Judith did not
necessarily follow one another originally. (In fact, Ste Anne is
not mentioned in here in the
The Mémoire of 1726)
Cahier 10
Made entirely of C.
Cahier 11
18 C (this is half of the outer sheet)
19-32 D
33
C (this is the other half of the outer sheet)
Cahier 12
Made entirely of
D.
Cahier 13
Made of D,
except for fols. 52-53, which are
† (they are the central folded sheet
of the cahier)
Cahier 14
Made entirely of D.
Cahiers 15-16
Made entirely of
E.
Cahier 17
Made of E, except fol. 8 which is a blank sheet of
◊, inserted into the
middle of the cahier, apparently in 1752 when the Mélanges were bound.
Cahier 18
Made entirely of E.
Cahier 19
Made entirely of
d.
Cahier 20
Made of several papers. Some of the marks are very faint. The cahier was
made of 6 folded sheets of paper, into the middle of which 2 folded
sheets of Jesuit paper were inserted:
55 very faint (probably
marque d)
56 raisin (probably marque d)
57
contremarque d
58 very big raisin, 6.5 x 2.7 (probably
marque e).
59 contremarque e
60 contremarque e
61-64
† (2 central sheets)
65 large raisin (probably marque e)
66 large
raisin (probably marque e)
67 contremarque e
68 smaller
raisin d
69 contremarque d
70/71 contremarque
d
Cahier 21
Made of 2 papers:
72 contremarque
G
73 contremarque G
74 marque G
75 very faint if anything (other half of
E?)
76 marque E
77 blank (other half of E)
78 marque E
79 blank (other half of E)
80 marque
E
81 contremarque G
82 marque G
83-84
marque G
Cahier 22
85 contremarque
G
86 marque G
87 contremarque
G
88 contremarque G
89 contremarque f
90 contremarque G
91 contremarque G
92 marque G
93-96 2 folded sheets of
E (central sheets: interestingly, these pages bear a piece for the Pièche
sisters)
97
contremarque G
98 marque G
99-100
marque G
101-02 raisin (probably marque f)
103-04 marque G
105
raisin (probably marque G)
106 contremarque
G
107-8 raisin (probably marque G)
Cahier 23
Made entirely of
E.
Cahier 24
This cahier consists of two smaller superimposed ones, the first
made of E, the second of g:
122-127 3 folded sheets of
E.
128-142 folded sheets of g.
Cahier 25
Mainly made of g.
Fols 2-3 are a folded sheet of brownish paper with an
illegible watermark. On fol. 11v-12, paper
A was glued over the original page at
the time of binding.
Cahier 26
Made
mainly of g. On fol. 12r, paper A was glued over the original page at
the time of binding. Fols 22-23 are a folded
sheet of paper with a light, indistinct watermark.
Cahier 27
41 † (the other half of this outer sheet is fol. 52-53)
42-51
F
Cahier 28
54 an odd piece of paper, quite brown, with H-flower-C in a cartouche, 1.25 x
5.25
55 contremarque F
56 contremarque F
57
contremarque F
58 marque g
59 contremarque
g
60 contremarque g
61 contremarque g
62
marque F
63 marque F
64 marque
F
65-66 apparently the other half of fol. 54
Cahier 29
Made of
G, but outer sheet (fols. 67 and 86/87) is †
Cahier 30
Made of
G, but outer sheet (fols. 80 and 103/4) is †
Cahiers 31-32
Made entirely of
G
Cahier 33
Made entirely of †
Cahier 34
Made of
H, but outer sheets (fols. 22-24 and 39-41) are †
Cahier 35
Made of
G. At the end, fols. 57-58 is a sheet of ◊, added in 1752.
Cahiers 36-37
Made entirely of
G
Cahier 38
Made entirely of I
Cahiers 39-40
Made entirely of †
Cahier 41
Made entirely of J
Cahiers 42 and 43a
Made of a mix of
K and J. The two papers clearly were intermingled when
the notebook was made.
Cahier 43b (which follows cahier 43a
chronologically but is in a different volume)
The outer sheets are J, but 3 folded sheets of d (fols. 7-12) are in the
middle.
Cahiers 44-45
Made entirely of K
Cahier 46
Made of a mixture of
K and L, which clearly were intermingled when the
notebook was made
Cahier 47
Made entirely of L
except for the central fols. 89-92, whose marks are an
oval cartouche with H-flower-C (5.2 cm) and a raisin.
Cahier 48 MISSING (it may be cahier “II”?)
Cahier 49
Made of a mixture of h and d (There is no clear pattern of how the pages
were folded, because I did not take time to measure all the raisins,
which are the marque of both papers)
1-2 ?
3 raisin
4
contremarque h
5 contremarque d
6 raisin
7
raisin
8 contremarque h
9 raisin
10 raisin
11 contremarque h
12 raisin
13 raisin
14
contremarque h
Cahier 50
Made entirely of h
Cahiers 51-53 MISSING
Cahiers 54-63
Made entirely of †
Cahier 64
This seems to have been made by putting two thin notebooks on top of one
another. (That probably was necessary because paper M is so heavy that
one could only fold a few sheets into a cahier.
18-27? M. The paper is very opaque and almost like cardboard. No
watermark is visible except at the fold, where a half a cross of Malta
can be discerned.
28-34 N
Cahier 65 MISSING
Cahier 66
36-53
M (Here too, very thick and opaque)
54-65 O
NOTE: according to the
Mémoire of 1726, this was once part of cahier 70.
Cahiers 67-69 MISSING
Cahier 70
Made entirely of O
NOTE: according to the Memoire of 1726, the final half of cahier 66 (fols.
54-65) was originally part of this notebook
Cahiers 71-73 MISSING
Cahier 74
Made entirely of O
Cahier 75
This contains a mystery: some Jesuit paper in the very middle! The
watermarks on the other papers were very difficult to discern and to sort
into connected halves:
35-44 i
45-47 †
48-54 i
A correction
of my Vers une Chronologie: fol. 55 does not appear to be paper O
The “Problematic Notebooks”
Cahier “I”
Made of paper 1, this follows cahier XVI chronologically. It contains
music for the original version of Le Malade imaginaire, February 1673.
Cahier “II”
Made of paper L, it may be the lost cahier 48. Orphée is the last work
for the Great Guise Music in which Charpentier sang. (I surmise that it
was performed for the Dauphin, because his musicians, the Pièche
brothers, join the Guise Music.)
Cahier “a”
Made of † paper. Originally part of an un-numbered gros cahier
that seems
to have contained personal compositions, this cahier has preserved Charpentier’s
Epitaph. The first sheet, copied by a different hand, has
a cartouche with either B!C or E!C, 3.8 x 1.3 (The other half, the
marque, a large raisin 4.5 high, seems to be fol. 65.) I did not find
this paper elsewhere. The opening page is blank, and the Epitaphium
begins on the verso, half way down.
Cahier “b”
Made entirely of paper
M, it dates from the 1690s
Cahier “c”
This is a mix of † and
O.
Cahier “d”
Made of paper † this was once part of the
gros cahier that contained Charpentier’s Epitaph. It contains primarily works for the Parisian
convent of Port-Royal where his sister was a nun. If, as I conjecture,
this cahier dates from late 1687, it was written during the transition
from serving the Guises to serving the Jesuits: hence its placement in
the gros cahier where at least one personal work, the Epitaph, was kept.
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