New Post: "I Do Listen to the Experts. Do YOU?"

[proto57]

Hi Rich,

 I wonder if you have any thoughts on folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.? Why did the scribe leave some free space at the top left of folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and at the top right of folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.? Why did he did not leave out the areas with wrinkles instead? In my opinion, the answer is that when the scribe wrote the text, the parchment was still fresh and curled and therefore without wrinkles. Only after the scribe wrote the text the curled parchment was pressed flat over a longer period of time, resulting in the wrinkles we see today.

There are also some other folios with wrinkles, such as folio 114 and folio 116. In my eyes there is also no doubt that the holes on folio You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. did develop after the text was written.

Don't these observations indicate that as the scribe wrote the text, the parchment was in a different state from what it is today?

Hi, Torsten: I took a look, as closely as the scans allow, and can give you my thoughts on what you observe:

1) I am not so sure that we know that the lettering is not going over those wrinkles, and avoiding them to some extent. They would have to be pulled open to see if the ink is inside and underneath them, too.

2) Like in one case, it looks as though the lettering sort of tapered downwards, following a wrinkle:

   

3) In other places, it looks as though the lettering may be affected by the wrinkle, lighter or darker where it comes against the wrinkles.

So if the lettering ink is found under the wrinkles after unfolding the wrinkle, and the wrinkles are known to be old, and impossible to form in modern times (in a 100 year old parchment manuscript), then it could be evidence of old, and therefore genuine. One check might be to look at the original photostats, made very close to 1912, to be sure they are already there. But also, if the letter ink is not found under the wrinkles, then it might imply the opposite, that old vellum was used (genuine or not). But I think it needs to be studied in more detail.

That's all I gots.