RE: VMs: RE: Yet another page

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:

> I'm quite sure (from all the subtle bleed-across) that the folios in the
> first quire are in the same order that they were in when it was
> painted up
> - from that, I infer that they're probably in the correct order.

These are watercolored inks you're talking about, but not the same chemical
makeup or consistency as modern inks.  Some questions we don't readily know
the answers to - thickness of vellum, consistent or not?  (My guess is not).
Vellum density/porosity, consistent or not?  (My guess is not).  Same ink
from beginning to end?  Not like buying Parker's colors, anyway.  Each has a
factor in "bleed-through", and each is an unknown.

In addition, we must also consider that the majority of the "bleed-through"
was a factor of time and repeated changes of seasons, i.e, some damp
involved.  At least 200 years on a shelf or in a box, never opened, may
account for transfers seen in this mss that are not visible in "better read"
manuscripts of the same age.  In fact, the "bleed-through" in the VMS is
rare as manuscripts go, even at an age of 500 years, give or take.

IF we consider this a factor of age, not something that occurred relatively
early, as you appear to consider it - then we must also consider that the
VMS was not a standing book on a shelf, where it was occasionally opened.
It was a book laying flat in some "vault", untouched for many a year before
finally opened.  "Bleed-through" is affected by gravity, and the
"gravitational influence" on this manuscript is "straight down, not
vertical.  Look at the pages that exhibit "bleed-through" and you might even
meet my sense of what side the book lay on when it was placed in its
"coffin".  Front cover facing up or down?  The evidence is there, you
decide.

GC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Nick Pelling
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 6:45 AM
> To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: VMs: RE: Yet another page
>
>
> Hi John,
>
> At 05:50 24/07/2003 -0400, John Grove wrote:
> >Also, if the content was written on separate sheets of vellum before
> >being bound (which I agree it probably was), then the question as to
> >whether the author foresaw the quire ordering and made the opening
> >page distinct from the closing pages. Page one is the introduction to
> >a subject, but page 8 (on the same sheet) would be the conclusion -
> >unless the text is supposed to be read on separate sheets - Read page
> >one, then page 8, then page 2 - then page 7?
>
> I'm quite sure (from all the subtle bleed-across) that the folios in the
> first quire are in the same order that they were in when it was
> painted up
> - from that, I infer that they're probably in the correct order.
>
> Quick aside: could you infer that some (or perhaps all?) of the painting
> was done *after* it had been bound into quires? Is there evidence
> to prove
> or disprove this hypothesis?
>
> The only pages in the original quire 1, then, with right-justified titles
> are f1r (which has 4) and f8r (which has 3 or 4, depending on how
> you view
> line 2), on the same bifolio. But however you fold that bifolio, one will
> be on the inside & one will be on the outside - what explanation could
> there be for that?
>
> That this might be a genuine phenomenon would seem to be
> confirmed by quire
> 2: the only title-like strings there are on pages f9r (bottom line) and
> f16r (fourth line) - which are also on alternate sides of the same
> outermost bifolio of the quire.
>
> This pattern doesn't seem to hold elsewhere (though I haven't checked
> exhaustively), but it's interesting all the same... :-o
>
> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>
>
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