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+--- Thread: [split] Bindings & covers (/thread-2451.html)
[split] Bindings & covers - -JKP- - 30-07-2018
It would be highly unusual for the manuscript to be bound before it was done.
In the middle ages, manuscripts were typically bound by the owner, not the people who created it. It was a two-step process. It's like buying a painting. The buyer purchases a painting and then takes it to a frame shop and picks out the colors and style of the frame.
A manuscript that was already bound was considered "second-hand" in those days.
That's not to say it couldn't happen, but it would be outside the norm.
RE: Erased lines? - VViews - 30-07-2018
"It would be highly unusual for the manuscript to be bound before it was done."
In my color revision theory,several colors like blue were not originally there, but whoever later came into possession of the Voynich colored it because they liked it better that way, or in the hopes of selling it for more that way.
I can't find the link right now but early on we had a discussion on this forum about a medieval manuscript where painting was done to existing drawings at least a century after the original binding.
RE: Erased lines? - davidjackson - 30-07-2018
So would Rudolph have been expected to rebind the manuscript? Was this something he would have done? In later years this was common - you rebound your books to match your library - but what was the custom in Rudolph's Prague?
RE: Erased lines? - -JKP- - 30-07-2018
(30-07-2018, 10:30 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.So would Rudolph have been expected to rebind the manuscript? Was this something he would have done? In later years this was common - you rebound your books to match your library - but what was the custom in Rudolph's Prague?
Oh wow. That's a really good question.
I don't know the answer, but it would not surprise me if a purchaser of a second-hand manuscript had it rebound, especially if it were someone with a lot of money.
But... the example René showed us of a manuscript from Rudolph's library was something of exquisite quality and the VMS was quite humbly bound.
RE: Erased lines? - ReneZ - 31-07-2018
There's some blue painting that certainly occurred before the present binding of the MS.
This is the part of the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. flower that crosses the binding and appears on f40r.
But there may well have been earlier bindings.
The nr. of possible scenarios is quite large.
It is not unlikely that Rudolf replaced the cover. Remember that the present cover originates with the Roman Jesuits in the 18th or 19th century, replacing an earlier one with leather over wooden boards. I once interacted with the Austrian historian Manfred Staudinger who clearly stated that Rudolf's books would typically be adorned with his arms.
Replacing a cover is entirely possible without redoing the stitching, and when the MS was at the Folger library, there were at least two conservators who considered that the present stitching might go all the way back to the 15th century.
RE: Erased lines? - davidjackson - 31-07-2018
To return to the binding - have other manuscripts rebound by Rudolph had their covers changed? Surely am imperial cover would be a status symbol in any age, meaning it would be less likely to be rebound
RE: Erased lines? - -JKP- - 01-08-2018
(31-07-2018, 10:30 PM)davidjackson Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.To return to the binding - have other manuscripts rebound by Rudolph had their covers changed? Surely am imperial cover would be a status symbol in any age, meaning it would be less likely to be rebound
Unless the subsequent owner were trying to hide traces of the previous owner.
RE: Erased lines? - ReneZ - 01-08-2018
We know that for the Voynich MS the reason to remove the old cover was to get rid of the bookworms.
That removing the covers also helped to make the books less conspicuous may have been another motivation, but that is only speculation.
Furthermore, we do not know of course, if the previous cover was indeed one of Rudolf. It is simply a possibility. MS You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , which was mentioned on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , had the cover with the arms of Rudolf removed, but at the same time the arms were preserved with the new cover.
RE: Erased lines? - Helmut Winkler - 01-08-2018
Looking at the first and last page, I doubt there was a leather-covered wooden cover before the jesuits - there are other pest that feed on parchment, bacon beetles and cockroaches for example
RE: Erased lines? - ReneZ - 01-08-2018
The conservators were united in their opinion about this.
It is also related to the specific location of the holes.