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[split] Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings
- [split] Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings
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RE: [split] Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings
Jorge_Stolfi > 11-01-2026, 11:03 AM
(11-01-2026, 08:36 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.It's not just the same ink, it's probably also the same nib and the same cut.
The nib of a quill pen had to be trimmed to a specific shape (tip squared-off, with a ~45 taper on the underside) and slit in half. Like fountain pens and steel pens, to this day. The slit is essential to ensure the proper flow of ink to the tip from the drop stored up in the qull/pen/reservoir.
So both lines highlighted on that image were written in shades of brown using pens with slits and squared-off tips. That is all the resemblance we can see. None of that counts as evidence that it was the same scribe. -
RE: [split] Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings
Jorge_Stolfi > 11-01-2026, 11:21 AM
(11-01-2026, 07:44 AM)JoJo_Jost Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Couldn't one also assume that the text was written and painted by scribes on instruction, and then corrected again later by the client, who was dissatisfied with the work?
The text was copied by a Scribe from a draft provided by the Author, and the outlines of the figures were drawn by the same Scribe according to the Author's instructions -- which may have been anywhere between "draw some plant on this page" to a more or less detailed sketch.
(The color paints were applied later, after the bifolios were (incorrectly) bound and the folios were numbered. Probably in the 1600s or maybe even later, by someone who did not understand the text and did not have much respect for the book.)
However, in the examples of what I see as late retracings, the Retracer usually retraced the previous (faint) version, and often made stupid mistakes. Like (J) and (K) on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Thus the opposite of "corrections"...
All the best, --stolfi -
RE: [split] Retracer Thread: darker ink, retracing of text and drawings
Jorge_Stolfi > 11-01-2026, 12:32 PM
(11-01-2026, 11:35 AM)Aga Tentakulus Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
(To be honest, the last one was made with a technical engineering pen, when page scanners had just become common accessories; and since then I have been editing my pen drawings heavily on the computer, with an image editor. I have many "honest" steel-pen-and-india-ink drawings from before that time, but they are packed away in a couple dozen boxes, with my Chaotic Randomized Filing System™. Owe you that...)
All the best, --stolfi