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[Blog Post] The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Printable Version

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The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Anton - 26-10-2020

A very interesting blog post by Wladimir.

As always, Google's translation from Russian is not perfect but acceptable.

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I will summarize major points a bit later.

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Wladimir D - 27-10-2020

I am ready to give explanations on the questions that have arisen.

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Anton - 29-10-2020

So, a brief summary, as promised.

Firstly, Wladimir argues that there are many places where folios have been trimmed by scissors, with the shape of the cut such as if made by tails (nibs) of the blades. From the latter observation Wladimir concludes that the trimming was made when the book was in closed state - the observation which I find problematic because some folios have apparently been "excessively" trimmed - e.g. folio 90 which is the first in the row of Wladimir's examples. Such excessive trimming is impossible if the book is closed - you can't trim farther than the pack of sheets allows you.

Next, Wladimir considers bifolio 33-40 and shows that this bifolio was trimmed after the stitching was done, because the direction of trimming for f33 and f40 is the same - towards the stitching. This would not have been the case for an unstitched bifolio.

There are cases when consecutive folios are trimmed in different directions, such as with f46 and f47, and there are cases when two pages were trimmed simultaneously, such as f95r1 and f95v2 which were trimmed together in folded state.

Next Wladimir discusses the possibility that the bifolios as we know them are in fact parts of larger sheets which were cut (separated) into the present state after the drawings were done.

Next Wladimir considers some examples where trimming was done by a knife, not by scissors.

Then Wladimir explores the issue of missing folios. He argues that f109-110 are not simply "missing", but have been deliberately cut out with a knife, judging by the accidental cut in f108 and some other traces (which I personally fail to recognize).

Folio 12 was first attempted to be cut off with scissors, and then the process was finished with a knife.

Folio 15 was trimmed by a knife, and the digit "5" was cut out, hence the need for the new pagination.

Wladimir suggests that there is the trace of the foldout close to the outer edge of f96 which suggests that the outer page was cut out from what had initially been a foldout. This idea is corroborated with the fact that the number 96 is written by a different hand - which would be the case when the pagination needs to be restored.

Finally, Wladimir suggests that folios 12, 74, bifolio 109-110 and Q12 were deliberately cut out all at the same time, presumably for sampling. Wladimir keenly observes that all these cases are united by that the respective folios were central folios of quires - which made it easy to remove these folios without much damaging neither themselves nor what remained in the book.

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - -JKP- - 30-10-2020

I'm extremely busy these days, so I barely have time to scan-read, but what I was able to read looked very interesting, and it's something that hasn't been studied in detail, as far as I am aware.

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Wladimir D - 30-10-2020

Anton missed one point.
When using scissors, two types of defects can appear.
1 / Saw formation (steps) if the cut is made with scissor tips (section “C”).
2 / Burr formation. If you made one cut, and the next time you press the scissors, you did not align the X points (scissors) and Y point (on paper), but started cutting from the Z point.
   
Why is the scratch from the knife not deep?
If the Q18 was heavy (analogous to ROS), then it had to be attached to an additional gasket located UNDER Quire, in the same way as it was done when attaching the Q14.
When cutting Q18, it was necessary to cut through the gasket first, then the knife may touch f96v.
It looks like we can see the remnants of the glued spacer (blue rectangle.)
On f93r, the spacer corresponds to a light green rectangle. Remaining glue may be visible.
   

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - -JKP- - 30-10-2020

They used knifes for everything in the Middle Ages and every scribe had knives. They also used shears on a regular basis for sheep, beards, hair, sewing, embroidery, and possibly also for certain aspects of butchering (e.g., severing chicken legs). Their blade technology was good.

If they are sharp enough, scissors can also be used like a knife. They might not be super-good for cutting, but they are often used for scoring. I don't know if this relates to the VMS, but I thought I would mention it.

Examples of 9th century Viking scissors. Note the different kinds of tips:

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14th century scissors:

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Early 15th century tailor's scissors. Note the sharp tips:

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Note the sock hat and baggy elbow clothes:

[Image: ae6574cdbf7c281314a3205925a5c626--mediev...othing.jpg]

[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]Houghton Library, MS Typ 0045[/font]

[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,][Image: f519e15d70f848dffcad0296d7a6123c--find-i...entury.jpg][/font]

[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]Medieval tailor, Austria, 1479[/font]


[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]Shears, 15th century France:[/font]

[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/art-manuscript-various-5850777ri[/font]


[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,]From Wikipedia: Turkey, 2nd century (embellishments in the Egyptian style):[/font]

[font=-apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont,][Image: 800px-Shears_MET_29I_E08R4.jpg][/font]

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Koen G - 30-10-2020

It is very interesting, but I know so little about this subject. What would be the takeaway or consequence? Apparently they may have used scissors and those left visible marks... So it was probably done without maximal care or expertise?

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Anton - 30-10-2020

The takeaway is that exploring these observations would probably allow to introduce new considerations into the reconstruction of the history of the VMS. I mean the sequence of events. Cutting, drawing, stitching, trimming, extraction of folios...

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - LisaFaginDavis - 30-10-2020

These are interesting observations, although not particularly surprising - the manuscript has been rebound several times, and both the binding and the rebinding process usually includes trimming.

RE: The use of scissors and penknife in the Voynich Manuscript - Wladimir D - 01-11-2020

Lisa and others. Is the You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. 96 the only example of a third hand that did the page numbering of the manuscript?

I suspect that number of page 116 was first drawn with the first hand and then circled with the second hand (examples of the second hand are highlighted in a red rectangle).
[font=Arial, sans-serif]     [/font]
There are two more possible options for installing the Quire 18 underlay.
1 / The gasket was first installed under Q17 and glued to f93r, and Q18 was already attached to it.
[font=Arial, sans-serif]     [/font]
2 / a spacer is installed under Q17 and Q16 and Q18 are sewn to it.
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