FILIGREE. - I. NELL'ARTE. - This name designates a work of goldsmithing in gold or silver threads twisted together, interwoven to form often arabesques or designs, soldered at the points of contact. The secret that for a long time made filigree work the prerogative of certain goldsmiths' workshops consists precisely in the concealment of the soldering.
The Far East perhaps knew filigree from very remote times, and from the East the fashion passed to Byzantium and thence, during the Middle Ages, it enjoyed great diffusion in Genoa and Venice; in France, on the other hand, it entered rather late, around the 16th century.
In Venice, filigree ornaments appear in the silver-gilt altarpiece donated by Patriarch Pellegrino II (1195-1264) to the cathedral of Cividale, but many other objects of the Marcian treasury also prove to be worked with this technique; Toseca supposes that the clasp found in the tomb of Clement IV (d. 1268) at Viterbo is also Venetian work, as are the ornaments of the crystal candelabra donated by Charles II of Anjou to St. Nicholas of Bari. Besides the Venetian ones, certain works of the Byzantines themselves should be remembered, which in Sicily have left, for example, the rich gold tiara found in the tomb of Constance (now in the cathedral of Palermo), with enamels, gems and pearls; in it the filigree covers the entire bowl. Filigrees similar to this Sicilian one (which are distinguished from the Venetian ones because the filigree is not twisted but curled) and in which perhaps the work of Muslim artists should also be seen, are also found in many other objects of the Norman treasury of Vienna.
Bibliography3 works
Gilberto Ronci
II. IN BIBLIOPHILY
Bibliophily, which has borrowed the term from metalworking, uses this name to denote the impression that the papermaker fixed on the sheet of paper by means of a design in metal wire inserted into the mould (v. CARTA). The watermark thus constitutes the paper mill's maker's mark, and is represented by the most varied figurations, which have sometimes given their name to particular types of paper. The oldest known one dates back to 1282 and represents a cross.
Since it was impressed at the center of the sheet, its position in the leaves of a book varies according to the format, by reason of the foldings that the sheet itself has undergone. It is a critically important element for establishing forgeries and for determining the date and provenance of undated manuscripts and paper documents. Today it is encountered only in fine papers and in currency paper.