Re: VMs: 14C dating

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jacobo,

Welcome to the list! :-)

At 12:27 25/08/2003 +0200, Jacobo Martin wrote:
> I am a newby on this subject. Please could somebody answer a noob's question?
> I've been searching in the internet about 14-C dating of the VMs...seems like
> Yale hasn't do it yet! 14C is not a very accurate method for the 16th-20th
> centuries range, but definetely would answer wether the VMs is older than 
> that.
>
> Being the manuscript's origins so misterious, I can't understand that lack of
> work, or maybe it's just that I've not been able to find that information in
> the internet.
> Could anyone of you please shed some light? Is the VMs dated?

The short answer is... no. Art history dating seems to point to 1450 
onwards (humanist handwriting, hairstyles & clothes, 
geometrically-patterned maiolica albarelli, etc), but that doesn't help us 
resolve whether the VMs is a 15th or 16th century coding system, a 16th 
century fake, etc - these data only suggest an earliest date, not an actual 
date. The controversy over the "sunflower" page also shows that these kinds 
of data can be remarkably ambiguous. :-o

FWIW, I think that the Beinecke would be receptive to an externally-funded 
VMs dating research proposal - but, possibly because the VMs has acted like 
an iceberg to sink past academic reputations of otherwise Titanic 
proportions, there's little or no current academic interest in doing this.

However, one might also consider the furore over dating the Vinland Map, 
which is also held by the Beinecke - recent dating evidence has only served 
to pour gasoline on the flames of that particular debate, apparently 
resolving nothing. :-(

IMO, I think that any such research proposal should include at least two or 
three distinct types of forensic dating methodology, as well as some 
geographic forensic analysis (such as analysis of pollen trapped in the 
vellum, etc): basically, any kind of reasonably solid data should be helpful.

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


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