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

[Jorge_Stolfi]

What is your theory for that retracing?

I don't know. It's ugly. Some pages are very faint but have not been retraced, for example: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Did the ink fade over time?

I suppose that the reason for the retracing of that page was the same as for the VMS: an owner was bothered by the writing being faded, and decided to redo it in darker ink.  

But that gray ink, unlike the original VMS ink, seems to be still quite legible to me. Perhaps the owner had failing eyesight?  Or his library had poor lighting?

Anyway, unlike the VMS retracer (who may have been a  professional Scribe specialized in restoring faded books), whoever did that job was obviously not up to the task.  I suppose that he gave up after a while because the result was too ugly and/or it was a slow tiring work.

Another theory is that the book was created by a team of a "senior" scribe who was fluent in Italian and wrote the text in thin strokes with light gray ink, and a "junior" scribe who was semi-illiterate but had only to retrace the text with darker inks.  That is how I believe You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. was produced. (except that in that case there was also a "venerable" scribe who asserted his superior status by drawing the red ink markings smack on top of what the other two had written, and a proofreader who checked and corrected the final result).

Or was this faint grey text written with a silverpoint or leadpoint instead of ink? Pencils were not invented yet in the quattrocento

I recall someone posting a manuscript of that time which had some geometry diagram drawn in pencil on the margin, then re-drawn in ink on the other margin. 

Pencils like we know today, with a wood enclosure, may have been a recent invention.  But ever since people had lead and tin they must have known that they could be used to write. 

All the best, --stolfi