[split] Jorge's Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I don't think these split strokes normally happen when properly using a good quill with normal quality ink.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the quill or the ink.  It happens with any quill or ink when the pen is about to run out of ink.  Again, a careful scribe will dip the quill into the inkwell before it gets to that state.

If you believe their extent is normal on this folio, could you find similar examples on the lefthand side page f43v?

   

First, on this clip of You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (lines 1-4, right margin, mag 2x) I see probably two retracing passes: the general restoration Rt1 (C ) that retraced all the text, and a second retouching pass Rt2 (D) that retraced only a few glyphs here and there.  The original Rt0 strokes by now have faded a lot and survive only as the tips of some tails of y and q (A,B).

As for split traces, on this page both Rt1 and Rt2 avoided writing with an almost-dry pen.  Still, at 2x magnification you should be able to see that, almost everywhere, the broad strokes have two dark traces, left by the two tines, with a lighter core in between, corresponding to the gap between them (J,K,L,M,N).

All the best, --stolfi