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RE: VMs: Bifolios and Smudges

Hi GC,

I too feel that we're missing something obvious about the page ordering.

At 02:44 28/07/2003 -0500, GC wrote: 
We have the suspicion that bifolios in the herbal section have been
reshuffled, and the physical evidence of [hb] bifolios inserted where they
don't seem to belong.  It seemed logical to check the bifolios for
consistency, and notice any changes or apparent order that would signify
progression of whatever system was involved in their construction.

The [hb] bifolios, as I've already posted, are mostly in order according to
my data, with only a few exceptions.  Why they were inserted where they were
is a matter for speculation, maybe.

I was surprised when I extended the study to the [ha] bifolios however.  As
I noticed in transcribing, going from page to page (in many cases this is
also going from bifolio to bifolio) there was sometimes a "feeling" that
something had changed from one to the other.  I also have a real thing for
f1r, as I "know" it wasn't written at the beginning, although it holds that
place.

If my interpretation of the data is anything close to correct, the author
did some major reshuffling before the binding into quires took place, for
whatever reason.  Alphabetical, subject matter, curatives, whatever the
reason, they're not in the correct order.  Later [ha] bifolios are more
consistent in "language", and [hb] bifolios are more consistent still.
Later [ha] bifolios have more words in common with [hb] bifolios, while
earlier [ha] bifolios demonstrate more "transition", for want of a better
term at the moment.  For instance, bf2, bf3 and bf5 are "early [ha] and in
order, but should have bf19 inserted instead of bf4.  bf4 is so far down the
list from these bifolios it's not funny.  (Again, remember that I've yet to
find a "check-and-balance" to verify these findings).


Look again at the bleed-across I noted in the first quire:-
        f3v - f4r       curve at top
        f4v - f5r       spot at top
        f5v - f6r       transfer 25% down
        f6v - f7r       symmetrical smudge in centre

I've also just noticed some bleed-across between f2v and f3r - there's a fine branch off the stem of the nanufar (80% down the page) whose paint is transferred across to the page on the right.

However, perhaps the most interesting q1 bleed-across artefact is the f4v/f5r transfer: I hadn't noticed it before, but this is right in the middle of bf4, q1's central bifolio.

Now, I think that the existence of bleed-across in a central bifolio is a clear indication that the bifolio already had its quire structure before it was painted - but look again at f4v/f5r, and you'll see that the transfer symmetry appears to be quite out of line with the binding symmetry (ie, there's a significantly larger gap on the left of the gutter than on the right). Physical examination may prove otherwise, but this seems fairly visually convincing for now. =:-o

I'm now fairly sure that all this points to the construction sequence (for quire 1, at least) as being:-
(1) text + pictures drawn onto the bifolios
(2) folding into quires in the order we see
(3) unfolding, painting and drying (impatiently)
(4) refolding into quires
(5) (later) binding

Further, my belief is that thin vellum was chosen to make it possible to trace many of the pictures from a prior source quickly - but that this meant not much paint was required to saturate it (and hence both to bleed through and to bleed across). I may well be that such paint-saturated vellum may well remain wet (or "tacky") for quite some time - hence the apparent impatience.

As to why bf4 might appear statistically different (AFA "words" go): I suspect that at least part of bf4 (specifically folio f4r) may have had a different content fingerprint - if you remove f4r from your calculations, does bf4 seem more in sequence?

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


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