Biocodicology - A Deeper Dive

[MichelleL11]

I just attended the Vineland Map presentation which showed a highly in depth analysis of the map and its associated manuscripts.

During the talk they mentioned that the group of Collins, Fiddyment, and Teasdale did an analysis of the source animals of the parchment materials for both the map and the related manuscripts and found a variety of both goat and sheep parchment.  Note that it is thought that the substrate materials are considered to be genuine (from the early to mid-1400s) whereas it is the ink of only the map (and some additional writing on both the reverse and at least a few words on the first page of an associated manuscript) are considered suspect.  Specifically, the ink used contains titanium that is in a crystalline form that is only found with modern manufacture.  The additional analysis work that was done confirms the modern source of this ink component, thus dating the map (and some of the reverse writing and a few words on the manuscript) as sometime between the 1920s and the 1950s.

SPOILER:  They didn't have much to say about who would be the likely forger, but it was an interesting talk nevertheless.

I believe this talk will be available for rewatching on the Yale Library website in the near future.

In any case, they confirmed that all DNA and protein analysis done on the map will be published in a future paper.  I will be keeping an eye out for that and will add to this string with a summary of their findings.  I will specifically be focusing on what increases in accuracy may have been developed since the last set of published data for medieval parchment came out and how that could perhaps be applied to the VM.