RE: VMs: RE: Yet another page

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi GC,

At 19:38 24/07/2003 -0500, GC wrote:
> 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.
<...snip...>
> 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.

Are we talking about the same thing here? I'm talking about colours 
bleeding *across* pages, not *through* pages.

As examples, I'd point to:-
f3v - f4r       curve at top
f4v - f5r       spot at top
f5v - f6r       transfer 25% down
f6v - f7r       symmetrical smudge in centre
(f13v - f14r    old binding marks down centre?)
f19v - f20r     three flowers at top
f26v - f27r     transfer from top right to top left
f29v - f30r     faint transfer at top
f31v - f32r     flowers at top
f32v - f33r     flower 25% down by edge (note - between quires!)
f44v - f45r     parallel mark 25% down ?
f49v - f50r     flower at top
f55v - f56r     shapes near top (overlapping text)
f94v - f95r1    three shapes near centre
        (note that this points to the page being "concertina-ed" rather 
than folded in)

These all:-
(1) appear only on herbal pages
(2) tend to be near the top or near the central binding gutter
(3) appear not to coincide with any apparent water marks or damage to the 
vellum

My interpretation of these is that some (if not all) of the painting was 
done after binding (or, at least, after arranging into quires and loosely 
binding).

Caveat #1: I don't have colour references for most of these pages, so can't 
tell if all this bleed-across is associated with particular colours.

Caveat #2: I also can't tell if the exact positions of these bleed-across 
transfers is coincident with the binding as we see it today - if it is, 
then we can be reasonably sure that (at least some) painting was done 
post-binding.

One hypothesis that might tie this all up could be that the so-called 
"heavy painter" painted *after* binding, but the rest of the painting was 
done *before* binding. We'd probably need colour pictures (and a proper 
study of the binding in situ) to determine whether this was the case, though/

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

PS: f93v appears to have some bleed-across from the last page of the 
missing quire 16 - it looks as though (the last page of) the missing quire 
16 was also a herbal! :-o 


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