Re: VMS rotoscopes at the British Library...?

[Seth <sethm@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Aug 07, 2001 at 11:21:40AM -0400, Jim Reeds wrote:
> On Aug 7, 15:56, Nick Pelling wrote:
> 
>  
> > Do you happen to know if this reproduction is planned to emulate the 
> > materials and draughtsmanship of the original, or purely the informational 
> > and design content?
> 
> The plan (which is moving along at glacial speeds) is to make
> a digital photographic copy of the VMS, that is, a collection
> of TIFF files. 

These things take time.  I'm sure that the effort is still moving
forward.  Again, I extend my offer of a reasonably large (for me,
at least) donation of money to the effort if needed.  Note however
that my concept of "reasonably large" may be rather smaller than Bill
Gates' concept.

I only hope that whatever method is used to make the digital copy does
not disturb the binding any more than it has already been through.
I can't imagine it would.  I fully intend to do a complete analysis of
the manuscript's binding early next year when I've moved back to the
east coast.  If nothing else, it should give us some insight into
the purpose of the book.  My current theory is that the physical
book structure was a blank book, effectively the early renaissance
version of a student's notebook, and that the text and illustrations
were added after it was bound.  This is based on the very scantest
of evidence collected from other people's descriptions, and I'd like
to know whether I'm barking up the wrong tree.

Looking closely at the binding should also help us date it with
additional accuracy.  Certain binding styles were "in vogue" during
different periods.  It may lend more evidence toward the current
date guesses.

-Seth