MAISON AU QUATRE DE CHIFFRE

On the facade of a dozen houses in Mirecourt is a four of a number most often on the key of the lintel of the door. This number 4 has had several meanings: from the 15th to the 17th century, it was a symbol against the plague; in the middle of the 16th century it appears in watermarks on paper made in the Vosges; from the end of the 15th century, it appears on the first pages of several printed works. In the 17th and 18th centuries this symbol was inserted in the signatures of the merchants of Mirecourt. These merchants often came from Savoy, where this symbol is frequent. According to some historians, the four of digit symbolizes the shape of a Roman scale, still widely used at that time. Often the horizontal bar of the the number 4, which represents the balance beam, is extended to carry one or two small vertical bars symbolizing the counterweight. The bottom of the vertical bar sometimes has a horizontal bar or anchor shape symbolizing the weighing point. Ten marks are visible today in Mirecourt, often accompanied by the year of construction of the buildings or the refurbishment of the façade alone. Texts Jean Paul Rothiot AVMR