Re: VMs: Counting sheep...?

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 15:23 29/02/2004 -0600, knoxmix wrote:
> I read that the hair side is better for writing. Normally, facing
> pieces would be hair side to hair side and flesh side to flesh side.

Might an experienced person be able to tell (say, from touch?) which side 
is which? Or, broadly at what order of magnification should the difference 
between the two be clearly visible? While we've often talked about how the 
bifolios are in the wrong order, hair-to-hair / flesh-to-flesh might prove 
an interesting test of different reorderings (such as for the balneological 
quire).

Incidentally, I recently noticed this story in a sample AMARC newsletter 
(May 2003) about examining the DNA of parchment (though I guess of vellum 
as well):-

        http://www.manuscripts.org.uk/amarc/Newsletter40.pdf
        Genetic Fingerprinting of Medieval MSS

        Christopher Howe (Cambridge University) has
        been awarded £52,428 for ?Genetic fingerprinting
        of medieval manuscripts?. The aim is to take
        small samples of medieval parchment, to extract
        its DNA, and to see if it is possible to identify the
        animals from which it was made (cow, sheep,
        goat, etc.), the breed of animal, and perhaps even
        the characteristics of individual herds/flocks
        (which may represent specific farming regions).
        In this way it may be possible to define the DNA
        characteristics of parchment from reliably
        localised manuscripts from specific centres
        (Canterbury, Winchester, York, etc.), and then
        localise the parchment of unlocalised manuscripts
        by comparison with these.

Slightly fuller versions of the same story:-
        http://www.cronaca.com/archives/001208.html
        http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/oldmembers/news.php?newid=52

It's early days for manuscript DNA, but still quite a cool project to be 
working on, I think. :-)

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


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