restoring parts of the missing pages

[Jorge_Stolfi]

Unfortunately, I have been told by several different decision-makers at the library that [full multi-spectral imaging] isn't going to happen, at least not anytime soon.

We all wish we had as many images as possible.  But I don't think that the information we could get from more MS images would be worth the cost and hassle of acquiring them.

We all had hoped that the MS images would reveal things we could not see in the BL 2014 ones.  Like text that was erased or faded to invisibility; or significant text hidden under the opaque paint.  But that largely did not happen, did it?

AFAIK, the significant new information we got from the MS images was

1. The ink is not iron-gall ink.
   
2. Most of page f116v was soaked in water.
   

Item 1 explains why so much of the text has faded so badly, and makes the VMS atypical in yet another way.  But otherwise does not seem to have much impact on anyone's research.

Item 2, in my view, solves the riddle of the text on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. -- although in a rather disappointing way.

What else have we learned from those MS images?

So, rather than more MS images, I would rather have more high-resolution, visible-light images of selected details.  Like this image from the McCrone report:
   
Such images could help us prove or disprove two important open questions:

1. Is the painting original, or a much later addition?
   
2. Is all the ink original, or was some of it retraced or added later?
   

The answers to these questions can have significant impact on many people's research, e.g. attempts to identify plants or to deduce the origin of the Scribe by the decorative details he used.

Unlike the MS images -- which demand complicated setups, expensive equipment, and specialized personnel -- such high-resolution images could be acquired by any trusted visitor with a hand-held digital microscope, with no special setup and with no stress to the book.  If the Library would only allow it....

All the best, --stolfi