Re: Ink and paper analysis?

[Philip Marshall <philip.marshall@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 22 Mar 2001 bfarnell@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Of course if this were a movie we could look at tiny bits of pollen and
> spores stuck to the vellum when the ink was laid down and identify the
> part of the world it was written in.  Anyone have a good Hollywood class
> archeo-botanist and a spare electron microscope lying around?

No need for Hollywood!

See:

Jankovska, Vlasta 1995. Pollen analysis of dust preserved in four medieval
books. Folia Geobot. Phytotax., Praha, 30:97-100.

The author was able to isolate pollen trapped in the bindings of four
books, all printed between A.D. 1500 and 1530, originally from the library
of the Franciscan monastery of Kadan in NW Bohemia; the particular mixture of
pollen species found was consistent with published data on the medieval
forests and agriculture of the region.

-Philip


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philip Marshall
MESc Candidate
Yale University
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

tel: +1 203.436.2137
email: philip.marshall@xxxxxxxx or pmm8@xxxxxxxxxxx

"The pig was not merely a pig but a creature bound among other things to
the fence, the dandelion, and a very special definition of property."
					-William Cronon