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

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I am regarding the idea of some (1) retracer who did a bunch of (silly) retraces and „improvements“ to a lot of drawings and really retraced some few words

That was my feeling until a few months ago.  To me it was obvious that certain details of the drawings, like the "showercaps" on some nymphs, were late additions by someone who did not care much about the contents.  Call that the "Sparse Retracing" theory (SRT).

But now I believe that, between the original Scribe and that "Boobs Retracer", there was an episode where a scribe or scribal shop was hired to retrace the whole manuscript, as faithfully as possible, because the original writing had faded to the point of being almost illegible, or worse.  Call this the "Massive Retracing" theory (MRT).

There is no question that many ink traces have faded to that extent, especially in the figure outlines.  Examples can be found on every page.  

So, if one excludes the MRT, one must find an explanation for how those traces can fade that much, while others remain dark and broad.  And how one trace can suddenly transition from one to the other.  And then back again.  And sometimes split into two traces, faded and dark, that go parallel for a while but then merge again... Like (4c)/(4e), (2e), (5f)/(5g) above.

The standard answer to this question is to invoke some unspecified magical property of the ink and quill used by the original Scribe's, that would cause those abrupt shifts.  Over the whole book.  Without the Scribe trying to fix the problem.

The only argument I have seen so far against the MRT is the assertion that it is "obviously" impossible to retrace letters with that precision without leaving "ghost" traces sticking out by the side of the new ones.  That being put down as a dogma, it follows that any cases where such ghost traces are in fact visible "must" be due to the Scribe himself retracing his work with that magical ink.

I offer You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. as evidence that experienced scribes can in fact retrace previous text with practically no ghosts, only with the thinner and lighter tails and plumes sticking out as continuation of the fatter and darker retraces.  Which is what happens everywhere in the VMS.  

But of course the infidels will claim that those scribes at St. Gallen too knew the recipe for the magic tone-switching ink...

but in this image, I would assume only some "hairdo" at the middle nymph, and even that seems not totally surely to be a retracing.

If you look closely, you will see the faint original outline of the top of the hair in all three nymphs as being just one finger above the hairline.  Like it is on the more pristine of the nymphs in the Zodiac.  The rest of the original hairdo is lost under the darker traces, but I see no sign of it below the tuft at the temples which I reconstructed above (also by reference to the pristine Zodiac nymphs).

And that also goes for the whole lower-tubes-and-whirlpools part of the figure.  Unlike the upper tubes, I can't see any sign of the original traces in that part.  In retrospect, it also looks quite odd and unlike the style of the upper part.

Again: for some Voynichologists, the SRT and the MRT should be largely irrelevant.  But I am aware that others will positively hate both, especially the MRT, because it conflicts frontally with any theories that depend on the details that were probably messed up by the retracers.  Oh well, what can I do...

All the best, --stolfi