A Great Vergata Paper

December 23, 2016

I do not remember if, on this forum, I had already made my praise to the Fabriano laid paper called Grifo. Certainly I commented before my penchant for laid papers, as they give me a feeling of ancient writing paper that I strongly prefer to the butter-smooth papers made for fountain pens.

In the course of my research on the history of botanical exploration in the American tropics, I stumbled often in the seventeenth and nineteenth-century manuscripts, which are frequently written on beautiful laid papers. I enclose, below, pictures of some manuscripts preserved in the archives of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid (whose curators I sincerely thank for giving me permission to take the photographs), penned in American soil by Spanish botanists in the last quarter of the XVIII century. They are, in my opinion, beautiful.

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s677/Franco_Pupulin/Manoscritti_zps9yu6rf5f.jpg

Recently, I joined my favorite laid paper, the Fabriano Ingres 90 gr/sqm, some other extraordinary papers. Among all, I want to mention at least the German Hahnemühle Ingres Durer in ivory, which is very similar to the Spanish papers of the eighteenth century manuscripts illustrated above, and the Zerkall Merian, available in white and ivory, a rather hard paper as I like.

During my Italian vacation last fall, I bought in the historic Pettinaroli store in Milan a beautiful laid paper in sheets of 100 x 70 cm, pale ivory in color, of an unknown manufacturer, and without any water mark to put me on the track of a possible paper mill. The Pettinaroli laid is smooth and soft, quite different from the other "dry” vergatas, as the Ingres Fabriano and many other. Write on it with a fountain pen, even with a broad and wet nib, is a real pleasure.

But the real discovery, you know how strange life can be, I made in Costa Rica ...

In a large paper-book-toy-erie (Universal, one of the oldest libraries of Costa Rica) I found packs of 30 sheets of a vergata paper made in Italy, made by Fabriano, which I did not know! This is Fabriano Grifo, a 85 gr/sqm paper, which I found in white and ivory. Amazing!!! It is a smooth vergata, with a just noticeable difference between the verse and the obverse, with virtually no bleed-through, even with broad nibs and wet pens (like my Omas Paragon in bold version). Really extraordinary.

These days, taking advantage of the holiday (the university closed its doors until early January), I decided to buy some 30-sheets packs (a bit' expensive, at about 10 cents per sheet in letter-size), in both white and ivory, to make some notebooks in the size of the Moleskine large (one of my favorite sizes). I realized that the people that cuts the paper in Costa Rica (it was evidently imported in large sheets) pays no attention to the fiber direction, so that a few sheets have horizontal vergelle (correct) and other vertical (not so correct). I asked if it was possible to buy the large sheets to cut them by myself, but the paper is apparently cut by the importer, the name of which is under a complete and inviolable secret…

Anyway, here below are the notebooks ready for use (with a few sheets with horizontal vergelle and a few other with vertical, but so much so ...). The last notebook, bottom of the pile, with a black cover and rounded corners, is a real Moleskine.

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s677/Franco_Pupulin/Recto_zpss70yooyz.jpg

In the second photograph it is visible the back of the page that has been written with Omas brown ink (rather fluid) and my Omas Paragon with a bold nib, which leaves on the paper a true stream of ink. As you can see, there is no trace of bleed-through!

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s677/Franco_Pupulin/Verso_zpsnv4akfjs.jpg

For curiosity, I tried to buy some Grifo paper in Italy, but without any success. Also on the Internet, the only contact I've found willing to sell for human quantity (because he had some remaining sheets), would not yield less than 150 sheets 100 x 70 cm! If any of the readers of the forum would have information about other suppliers of small amounts (like 20 sheets), I would be very grateful if you would let me, and let us, know.

Merry Christmas to all.