HISTORICAL OUTLINE
"An ancient invention, from the point of view of its achievement, the
water-mill is medieval." ( M. Bloch).
The mill is the first mechanical engine appeared in the human history. A Roman-
Hellenistic invention ( III-II centuries B. C ), its diffusion and its function
are medieval and European phenomena.
In a millennium, the water-mill will cover the whole continent from Crete ( IV
century) to the Scandinavian area (XIV ), almost regularly. In the IV century,
in Crete,
it’s supported by written evidence, from the IV to the V centuries in the
French area and in the northern Italy. Since the VIII century, after a
standstill phase, due to the barbaric invasions, the water-mill has appeared in
the Saxon area to reach the Great Britain in the following two centuries. Since
the XII century, its presence has spread from the Baltic coasts to the Danubian
area, involving Denmark and the central Germany. Its settlement in Scandinavia
will be preceded by the first mills in Iceland.
The changes, brought about by this phenomenon, are such as to induce the
historians to talk about it as a kind of industrial revolution antelitteram.
The water-mill, in fact, first used for the milling of cereals, then became also
a primary tool for manifold specializations in all manufactures dependent on
water energy.
The availability of the mere technical element, already known in the Roman times,
was not sufficient to start the mill history. Some other conditions were
necessary, among which, first of all, the progressive disappearance of slavery.
As long as slavery was considered a natural institution, the mill, operated by
slaves was most convenient, because the muscular energy didn’t have a price. To
the downfall of that social institution, on which all the productive
arrangements of the pagan world were based, contributed, since an acient age,
phenomena strictly connected, such as the new experience and the new conception
of humanity brought by Christianity, the downfall of the servile labour supply
followed by the crisis of the Roman empire and, later, the beginning of a new
koinè between Latin and German population, in whose nomad and clan societies
slavery was poorly present.
The medieval fortune of the mill proceeds together with the formation of the
political and social Europe, realized between the VI and the XI century as a
synthesis between the German military power, the Roman- Gaul big landowners and
the cultural, jiuridical and technical heritage coming from Roman and Greek
societies.
In the medieval West, the diffusion of the water- mill happens between the X and
the XI century, with the foundation of the large abbeys, the large drainage
works and the establishment of a stable canal network. Also the feudal system
and the priviledge of the ban for the cereal milling, in the high- class mill,
give a contribution for its achievement: the feudatories supply the
establishments, they take care of their maintenance, they guarantee the presence
of the miller- one of the first specializations which appear in the western
social history- while the population had to use the mills, giving part of the
milling or of its worth.
For more than a millenium, the mill had dominated the world, it had civilized
the nature and the productive activities. Because of the cost and the complexity
of the equipment and because of the continuous necessity of maintenance, the
preindustrial mill took up a technological place, which is
comparable to that one covered by the power station nowadays. Beginning from the
large abbeys, the medieval artisan rebirth is connected to experimentation and
diffusion of activities and specializations- such as kiln men, blacksmiths,
joiners, carpenters and tanners- that used the hydraulic- energy and gave rise
to new machines almost always linked to the primary engine equipment of the mill.
We are used to associating the huge machines with the nineteenth- twentieth
century industry, but already in medieval ages, it’s not incorrect to talk about
gigantism. The mill, also in its most original and rough shape, in fact,
is not identifiable with the mechanism and with the building that contains it.
It’s rather a system made up of different parts strictly indipendent thanks to
its energy supply and the calibration of its hydraulic equipment. We have to
think about the use of the hydraulic machines to carry some materials. The sites
of the Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, for example, demanded a series of
infrastructures, which had great influence on the habitat and the
landscape: differentiated sites included stone quarry, stores and brickyard,
forests with long-trunked trees, streets, canals, bridges and post
offices, waggons and barges. If the hugeness of the modern industry is
essentially vertical ( buildings, towers, chimneys...), perceivable at first
sight, the preindustrial mill has a total orizontal expansion, the extremity or
borders of which, instead, are elusive at first sight; it cannot be separated
from the landscape, it’s a synthesis of humanity, work and nature. Only with the
pioneer advent of the railway- in the first half of the nineteenth century-
there will be a profusion of infrastuctures, connected to one other, which is
comparable to the mill- machine one, for the extension of the areas involved and
for the impact on the territory.
The medieval evolution of the water engine will proceed, both on a territorial scale and on an architectural one, giving the mill a symbolic meaning, that is to say, the place of strength similar to the water in fountains and the fire in furnaces; it will take over an aggregative, representative, constructive significance in every day relationship among human communities.
AN AGE OF BIG TRANSFORMATIONS AND OF UNSUSPECTED
CONTINUITY
The situation described above remained almost unchanged until the first part
of the XIX century. The breaking and changing elements were numerous and of
various nature. First of all, during the Napoleonic period and the diffusion of
the civil codes, the public possession of the mills, which had already passed
from the high- class, ecclesiastic and lay properties, to the communal ones,
finished and their privatization began.. First the deforestation policy and
later the systematic drainage practice began to impoverish the land of resources
considered endless till then.
During the Industrial Revolution, the technological scene had to be changed.
Since Illuminism, the principal raw material was used in the machines such as
wood, ropes, textiles, food. Now, new material imposed itself, first of all iron,
and new productions.
But, during the beginning historical phase that some elements of continuity can
be noticed. For example, the new industries will be located in the same sites as
they were previously, the same ancient rights of water derivation will be kept
in use. For that reason we can notice a phase of juxtapposition of what concern
the definition of the new productive landscape, in which existing mills and
hydraulic factories represent the principal support for the new types of
production to be introduced. Therefore, it’s not surprising that in that
evolutionary phase the mill almost represents a sort of breeding ground for the
technological innovation which is destined to supplant its millenary energetic
monopoly. At the beginning of the big economic empires and of the heavy industry
dominating the XIX and the prewar XX century, in many cases, we find country
mills and small hidraulic smithies.
With the introduction of electricity on a large scale, the productive system of
energy totally changed. However, probably for the last time, the ancient
hydraulic engines evidenced the versatility and flexibility that had guaranteed
their millenary monopoly. The electricity, in fact, was produced first on a
local level, adapting rooms inside the milling systems themselves.
THE WATER MILLS AS INDUSTRIAL AND PREINDUSTRIAL
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS
During the XX century, the mill gradually but inexorably left the productive activities and became a memory depository, a testimony of technological knowledge and of ecological capacity of the previous generations and an appeal to our responsability in the management and in the research of balanced models for the natural use of resources. The consciousness of the educational value of the mill is evident in many cases- some also documented in our research- in istitutional forms. The buildings of the ancient mills have become museums, schools, research centres managed by public and private bodies. The availability of places, the interest and the availability of individuals and of associations for cultural and creative investments on these places give way to planning and proposal of innovative solutions.