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Dating of VMS - Printable Version

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RE: Dating of VMS - Koen G - 25-05-2016

So here I find a thread where most (all?) people seem to agree that the most sensible thing to do at the moment is to accept the proposed 1405-1438 date range. This seems like the most logical conclusion for me as well. In the other thread, some doubts were raised, so I thought I'd try to refocus the discussion to this thread, with some genuine questions:

  1. Is there any good reason to doubt these findings? 
  2. Do I understand it correctly that the untested quires are generally believed to have the same (material) age as the tested ones?
  3. Is there any good reason to believe that the manuscript was written on old vellum, allowing for a more recent date of creation?
  4. Should any well-aimed additional tests be carried out to bring more clarity? Which ones?
  5. ...
Just to be clear, I personally have no problem whatsoever accepting the results of the sample analysis. However, since at times doubt is raised about this, by various people for various reasons, I wonder if there are any indications for a later dating.

RE: Dating of VMS - ReneZ - 25-05-2016

My opinion on question 4:

There are plenty of interesting additional tests that could be done, but I won't say that these would be justified, given the likely high cost involved.

1: radio carbon dating of the few parchment strips that were added in the centres of some quires. These could well have been added at the time of the latest binding, and would then tell us when that happened. Problem: this could fall in a time frame where the C-14 method has a very large uncertainty.

2: DNA tests of the parchment. This might not immediately give results, but with time, a growing database of such results might locate the origin of the parchment.

In my opinion, not *that* much would be gained from both tests.
The date of the present binding would be interesting to know but not much more.
The location of parchment generation may not be the same as where the MS was produced.

RE: Dating of VMS - Anton - 25-05-2016

Re question 4:

I think an interesting test would be dating of arabic digits in You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. in comparison with the digits with which the pages are numbered.

RE: Dating of VMS - Koen G - 25-05-2016

Rene, I agree that it would be interesting if we could find out when the MS was rebound and so on.

Very good idea Anton, that would be one of my first requests as well. It would be quite interesting if they appear to be original.

I'd also like to have some pigment samples dated, if possible, to see if there is a time difference between the 'heavy paint' and for example the neater faint yellowish one.

RE: Dating of VMS - Anton - 25-05-2016

Quote:I'd also like to have some pigment samples dated, if possible, to see if there is a time difference between the 'heavy paint' and for example the neater faint yellowish one.

I remember someone explained that pigment carbon dating is technically not possible - the samples are too small and much contamination is introduced.