VMs: Re: Drawing circles

["DANA SCOTT" <dscott520@xxxxxxx>]

FWIIW, something I once saw in the VMS (I don't remember where at the 
moment) made me think that to achieve such a sharp line of demarcation the 
scribe might have first placed some type of tape on the vellum, a technique 
similar to what painters use; however, I do not know if tape that could be 
applied and subsequently removed was available back in the Middle ages.

Regards,
Dana Scott


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick Pelling" <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 11:31 AM
Subject: VMs: Drawing circles


> Hi everyone,
>
> At 10:54 03/08/2003 -0700, Dana Scott wrote:
> >Very good. So perhaps our scribe had access to rather sophisticated
> >writing/drawing tools, such as might be found in a monastery or an
> >institution of higher education.
>
> We're getting there, but we'll need to work just a little harder to lock
> down the precise way that each circle was drawn. If there are indeed dots
> in the centre of some (but perhaps not others), then it suggests a
> mechanical aid (like a circinus) - but I'm also fascinated by the question
> of how many of the less obvious rings were produced.
>
> Look at the outer ring on f70r1: this has a sequence that looks like
> ....oooooooool ar..e.. sasa.. . . . . . . (weird stuff). And look at the
> outer rings on f67v1 - these look hand-traced or hand-drawn, not 
> mechanical
> at all. Many of the circles appear to be slightly wobbly and/or
> non-circular - look at f67r1, for example.
>
> Given the general production techniques for manuscripts, I'm not really
> sure I understand how circular bands of text would be produced easily,
> unless the whole manuscript was rotating. I suspect that the weird stuff 
> on
> f70r1 is just a scribe having fun with a rotating writing table. :-)
>
> All in all, there are plenty of circular diagrams in the VMS - so we 
> should
> really be able to work out reasonably definitively from all their
> peculiarities how they were produced.
>
> Cheers, ....Nick Pelling.....
>
> PS: a quick aside for Phil Neal: have you looked at the horizontal lines 
> on
> f67r2? The text lined up by them appears to be largely top-aligned (ie, to
> the top of the gallows) on the second and third line, but not on the 
> first?
>
>
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