04-02-2026, 08:27 PM
(04-02-2026, 07:10 PM)eggyk wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.(03-02-2026, 03:08 AM)proto57 wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.I am glad you agree the "folding problem" is as of yet unexplained. You know I am the author of that discovery? And I would be interested in seeing the results of your experiences with the Siloe replica letter. But I did make an accurate representation of the letter, and a couple of others that were (supposedly) contemporary with it, and it was obvious to me that the 1665/66 Marci letter does not fold properly along the existing fold lines.
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Apologies if this is something that has already been brought up. I printed out my own version of the marci letter and added folds as well as I could along the fold lines similarly to how you did in that video.
As far as I can tell, it folds nicely into a pocket, similar to the first two examples although the wax would have been completely inside. You can fold it such that it nicely presents Marci's name on the left side, and the "prague 19 augusti" wraps around the curved part of the paper, with the year being in the middle of that curve.
"Atia vestre" is in the middle of the other side.
Folding it like this (i'll do my best to explain through photos, sorry):
The full letter:
Folding it this way:
Bending the left side (not tightly folding it): Note that the missing paper from the top left corner lines up nicely here.
Now sticking the wax together: Note that the mark above "vestre" and the mark above marci's name line up on opposite sides
Here is the year and augusti going around the curve:
If the paper was intact when sealed, this configuration lends itself to accidentally ripping the paper when trying to open it. It would have also stayed together much more nicely with the full straight edge of the paper.
I'm not an expert, so I'll leave it to others to work out whether the letter being folded in that way would have made sense. I definitely feels natural to open and close.
That is an excellent experiment, Eggyk, but I have to say that the results of your experiment only bear out what I also found: The folds make no sense in any real context. When I say that the letter "doesn't fold", I don't mean, of course, that it cannot be folded into SOME shape or another. Any flexible sheet CAN be folded. Your photographs are a clear demonstration of this, as none of the results are normal for any letters of the time.
So as my demonstration and your experiment both show, the 1665/66 Marci letter does not fold in one of the ways letters of the time folded:
1) When a single letter, ending up so that the address is on one side, and room for the seal to hold it together.
2) When folded as an envelope, in order to contain other sheets, it may not have writing nor markings on the reverse. Then, one side usually folds over the other, and the seal can be affixed to secure that fold.
The Marci letter cannot do any of that. It does not make sense in any context.
Here again is my demonstration:
And here, again (for anyone who has not seen this), the blog post I created it for: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You may also come to the conclusions I have... that is, that this letter "doesn't fold into anything reasonable, normal, logical", by repeating your experiment on the other Marci letters from the Kircher Carteggio. You will quickly see the difference.
Rich