[Design of Marci Letter]

[Jorge_Stolfi]

[quote="Jorge_Stolfi" pid='83005' dateline='1776475209']
By the way, are the dimensions of the VMS "standard" in some sense? I mean, was parvelchlumment traded in sheets of standard size, that was then cut in halves, quarters, thirds, whatever was desired? Which would have resulted in book dimensions being "quantized" to specific values, plus or minus a few mm...

I would also like to know more about that. I expect it's something our manuscript experts can answer fairly easily. (But note that it would also imply that any hypothetical “Book A” would need to share yet another feature with the VMS—namely, its exact dimensions.)
[quote]

That is why I asked.  

I am guessing that paper book sizes were somewhat standard ("folio", "quarto", "octavo", etc.), not only because the sizes of paper sheets must have been a de-facto standard for traders' and users' convenience, but possibly also because each printing press and printing house may have been organized and configured to produce books of certain specific sizes.  But the question is whether that was the case also for parchment books in the pre-Gutemberg era.

For the Book Switch theory to work, Wilfrid would have had to find a book that (A) could be passed off as Bacon's to some Stupid Rich Banker, (B) fit the description in Baresch's letter,  and © was large enough for Marci's letter to have been pasted inside it.  If books mostly came in certain specific sizes, that would have made requirement © almost trivial.

All the best, --stolfi