| Abstract: | At the beginning of the thirteenth century the territory of Florence possessed three types of grain mill: the floating mill, found particularly on the River Arno in the immediate vicinity of the city of Florence itself; the suspension mill, located on the Arno as well as the free-flowing Elsa to the southwest; and the horizontal mill situated primarily along the streams throughout the Florentine countryside. The floating mill and suspension mill were run predominantly by the Vitruvian gearing system while the horizontal mill was operated by the apparently less efficient ritrecine or horizontal walerwheel. An examination of the notarial chartularies lodged in the Archivio di Stato of Florence shows that after 1250 the Florentines, while incorporating northern- European methods for the manufacture of woolen cloth, began to use overshot and undershot mills, the former being designated as French and the latter as orbital. The orbital mill was constructed along the banks of navigable rivers like the Arno and the Elsa and soon was partly responsible for the disappearance of the floating mill. The French mill, on the other hand, was located by the erratic torrents of the hills and mountains of the countryside. It did not by any means replace the horizontal mill. In many cases, it simply became part of a pre-existing complex housing a ritrecine. In others, particularly in the latter half of the fourteenth century, there was a successful symbiosis of the principal mechanisms of the overshot and horizontal types, creating the French horizontal mill. By the end of the fourteenth century the territory of Florence thus had five types of grain mill and thereby anticipated the basic milling technology of the High Italian Renaissance as illustrated in Agostino Ramelli's compendium of machines completed in 1588. |
