FULLO
FULLO (
κναφεύς,
γναφεύς), a fuller, a washer or scourer of cloth
and linen. The fullones not only received the cloth as it came from the loom
in order to scour and smooth it, but also washed and cleansed garments which
had been already worn. As the Romans generally wore woollen dresses, which
were often of a light colour, they frequently needed, in the hot climate of
Italy, a thorough purification. The way in which this was done has been
described by Pliny and other ancient writers, but is most clearly explained
by some paintings which have been found on the walls of a fullonica at
Pompeii. Two of these paintings are given by Gell (
Pompeiana, vol. ii. pll. 51, 52), and the whole of them in
the
Museo Borbonico (vol. iv. pll. 49, 50); from the latter
of which works the following cuts have been taken. The clothes were first
washed, which was done in tubs or vats (
lacus,
lacunae), or mortars (
pilae fullonicae,
Cat. Agr. 10.5; 14.2), where they were
trodden upon and stamped by the feet of the fullones, whence Seneca
(
Ep. 15) speaks of
saltus
fullonicus. The various operations of the
κναφεῖς are described by Hippocrates (
de
Diaeta, 1.14):
καὶ οἱ γναφέες τωὐτὸ
διαπράσσονται:
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Fullones. (From a painting at Pompeii.)
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λακτίζουσι, κόπτουσι, ἕλκουσι λυμαινόμενοι,
ἰσχυρότερα ποιέουσι, κελροντες τὰ ὑπερέχοντα καὶ παραπλέκοντες
καλλίω ποιέουσι. The foregoing woodcut represents four
persons thus employed, of whom three are boys, probably under the
superintendence of the man. Their dress is tucked up, leaving the legs bare;
the boys seem to have done their work, and to be wringing the articles on
which they had been employed.
The ancients were not acquainted with soap until the time of Pliny, who once
mentions
sapo as a Gallic invention (
H.
N. 28.191); they used in its stead different kinds of alkaline
detergents (
ῥύμματα, Plat.
Rep. 4.429 E). The following were the principal substances
employed:--1. A species of lye or potash called
κονία, Lat.
lixivium (Plat.
Rep. 4.430 A;
Aristoph. Ach.
18,
Ran. 712; Pollux, 7.39). 2. Nitrum, or native
carbonate of soda (
νίτρον, Att.
λίτρον), of which Pliny (
Plin. Nat. 31.106 ff.) gives a long
account. The best
nitrum came from Chalastra or
Chalestra in Macedonia, whence
χαλεστραῖον,, scil.
λίτρον
(Plat.
l.c.; Plin.
l.
>c. § § 107, 115); it was also found in Egypt
in large quantities, but of inferior quality (
Hdt.
2.86; Plin.
l.c. § § 109,
111). The
νίτρον καὶ φῦκος of Theocritus
(
Idyll. 15.16), sometimes explained as cosmetics, are
more probably a mineral and a vegetable alkali used for washing wool;
κονία was prepared from nitrum (
Aristoph. Frogs 712). 3. Fuller's earth
(
creta fullonia,
Plin. Nat. 17.46), a sort of alkaline
marl, of which there were many varieties; the most celebrated was from the
island of Cimolos (
Κιμωλία γῆ,
Aristoph. Frogs 713; Theophr.
Char. 10 and 18 ;
Strab. x.
p.484;
Ov. Met. 7.463; and
especially
Plin. Nat. 35. §
§ 195-198). The Sardinian was also good, but destructive to
colours, and hence only suitable for white garments or for the first rough
washing of those which were afterwards to be smartened--up (
poliri, Plin.
l.c.; cogi,
conciliari, Varr.
L. L. 6.43) with Umbrian or
Cimolian earth. We must distinguish between fuller's earth, mixed with the
water in which the clothes were washed, and the ordinary
creta, used like pipeclay for whitening the togas of the
candidati (Plaut.
Aulul.
4.9, 6). 4. The urine of men and animals, mentioned in this connexion by
Mnesitheus, an Athenian physician of (probably) the fourth century B.C. (ap.
Ath. 11.484 a), but in more general use
among the Romans. The fullones derived their supply of it from the public
latrines (
Mart. 6.93,
12.48;
DOLIUM); and
they are supposed by Casaubon and others to have paid the
urinae vectigal raised by Vespasian (Suet.
Vesp. 23).
After the clothes had been washed, they were hung out to dry, and were
allowed to be placed in the street before the doors of the fullonica. (
Dig. 43, tit. 10, s. 1.4.) When dry, the wool was
brushed and carded to raise the nap, sometimes with the skin of a hedgehog
(Plin.
H.
N. 8.135), and sometimes with some plants of the teasel kind
(
γναφικὴ ἀκάνθη, Dioscor.
Mat.
Med. 4.160;
spina fullonia,
Plin. Nat. 16.244, 24.111, 27.92). The
carding instrument is called in Greek
κνάφος (Schol.
ad
Aristoph. Pl. 166), in
Latin
aena (Plin.
ll. cc.).
The clothes were then hung on a vessel of basket-work (
viminea
cavea), under which sulphur was placed in order
to whiten the cloth; for it was well known that many colours were
[p. 1.882]destroyed by the volatile steam of sulphur. (Apul.
Met. ix. p. 208;
Plin. Nat.
35.175; Pollux, 7.41.) The preceding account is well illustrated
by the first of the two following woodcuts.
On the left we see a fullo brushing or carding a white tunic, suspended over
a rope, with a card or brush, which bears considerable resemblance
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Fullones. (From a painting at Pompeii.)
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to a modern horse-brush. On the right, another man carries a frame
of wicker-work, which was without doubt intended for the purpose described
above; he has also a pot in his hand, perhaps intended for holding the
sulphur. On his head he wears a kind of garland, which is supposed to be an
olive garland, and above him an owl is represented sitting. It is thought
that the olive garland and the owl indicate that the establishment was
under, the patronage of Minerva, the tutelary goddess of the loom. On the
left, a well-dressed female is sitting, examining a piece of work which a
younger girl brings to her. A
reticulum [see p.
499 a] upon her head, a necklace, and bracelets denote a person of higher
rank than one of the ordinary work-people of the establishment
In the following woodcut we see a young man in a green tunic giving a piece
of cloth, which appears to be finished, to a woman, who wears a green
under-tunic, and over it a yellow tunic
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Fullones. (From a painting at Pompeii.)
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with red stripes. On the right is another female in a white tunic,
who appears to be engaged in cleaning one of the cards or brushes. Among
these paintings there was a press, worked by two upright screws, in which
the cloth was placed to be smoothened. A drawing of this press is given on
p. 464
a.
The establishment or workshop of the fullers was called
Fullonica (
Dig. 39, tit. 3, s. 3),
Fullonicum (
Dig. 7, tit. 1, s.
13.8), or
Fullonium (
Ammian. 14.11.31);
fullonum
officina (
Plin. Nat. 35.175).
Of such establishments there were great numbers in Rome, for the Romans do
not appear to have washed at home even their linen clothes (Martial,
14.51). The word
πλύνειν denoted the washing of linen, and
κναφεύειν or
γναφεύειν the
washing of woollen, clothes. (
Athen. 13.
582d; Pollux, 7.39, 40, 41.; Eustath.
ad Od.
24.148, p. 1956, 41.) To large farms a fullonica was sometimes attached, in
which the work was performed by the slaves who belonged to the
familia rustica (Varro,
R. R. 1.16).
Woollen garments which had been once washed were considered to be less
valuable than they were previously (Petron. 30; Lamprid.
Heliog. 26); hence Martial (
10.11) speaks of a toga
lota terque
quaterque as a poor present.
The trade of the fullers was considered so important that the censors C.
Flaminius and L. Aemilius, B.C. 220, prescribed the mode in which the
dresses were to be washed (
Plin. Nat.
35.197). Like other principal trades in Rome, the Fullones formed a
collegium or
sodalicium (Fabretti,
Insc. p. 278 ; Orelli, 3291
Mommsen,
Inscr. Regn. Neap. 2208; Orelli, 4056, 4091) under
the protection of Minerva, the patroness of handicrafts (Id. 4091, 7240). As
regards legal liability, the fullo was answerable or the property wile it
was in his possession; and if he returned by mistake a different garment
from the one he had received, he was subject an action
ex
locato; to which action he was also liable if the garment was
injured (
Dig. 19, tit 2 s. 13 § 6 s. 60
§ 2; 12, tit. 7, s. 2)
(Schöttgen,
Antiquitates Triturae et
Fulloniae, Traj. ad Rhen. 1727; Beckmann,
Hist. of
Inventions, 2.92 ff., ed. Bohn; Becker-Göll,
Charikles, 1.316;
Gallus,
3.306 ff.; Hermann-Blümner,
Privatalterth. 415;
Marquardt,
Privatl. 511; and especially Blümner,
Technol. 1.157 ff.)
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