(9 hours ago)Jorge_Stolfi wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Velum normally is indigestible to worms, but someone observed that the original cover of the VMS (before it was replaced, somewhere in 1700-1900) must have been made of wood, which worms can eat. Thus the worms mostly infested the covers and just nibbled at folio f1, and also at folio f116 (which has similar holes in the gutter margin); but did not go beyond them.
Actually, I would argue that the wooden covers, if they did exist, were likely replaced before that period.
The top of the third column of letters/glyphs at the side of the page appears to be written to avoid a pre-existing wormhole (see MSI clipping below). So if one accepts Lisa Fagin-Davis' proposal that the marginalia was written by Marci himself, then the worm holes likely predate Marci's "notes". In addition to this, there are reasons to believe that the present cover originated sometime before ~1700 (as I have suggested with details in my recent paper on the Marci Letter). Combined, the evidence would suggest the wooden covers were earlier than Marci's handling and then replaced soon after Marci.