The “Sandro Farroni Family Paper Collection” becomes part of the CCF

The “Sandro Farroni Family Paper Collection”  is now officially available online. In recent months, the Farroni family has fulfilled the wish of Sandro Farroni, who passed away two years ago and dedicated much of his long career to the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano, eventually serving as Deputy General Director. A member of our Foundation, he expressed during the Assembly his intention to donate a valuable collection of watermarked papers he had carefully preserved.

The collection includes 288 nineteenth‑century sheets featuring 90 different types of watermarks, produced by the prestigious Fornari Paper Mill—historical competitor of the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano and second in importance only to Miliani. Catalogued and digitized by the Foundation, these papers now become part of the Corpus Chartarum Fabriano, the catalogue of Fabriano watermarks consulted by scholars worldwide.

A fundamental piece of Fabriano’s papermaking history. The refinement of the Fornari watermarks—acquired in 1903 by Giovanni Battista Miliani—attests to the extraordinary technical and artistic skill of Fabriano’s papermakers. The collection also includes remarkable banknote papers produced for Argentina, the Bank of Italy, and the Kingdom of Italy, illustrating the strength and competitiveness of a company capable of standing up for decades to its main Fabriano rival.

Our gratitude goes to the Farroni Family, whose donation has significantly enriched Fabriano’s watermark heritage, making a precious chapter of our history accessible to all.

To view only the papers from the “Famiglia Sandro Farroni” in the Corpus Chartarum Fabriano, go to “Advanced Search” (https://www.fondazionefedrigoni.it/en/advanced-search) → select “Origin” → “Donazione “Famiglia Sandro Farroni”.