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RE: VMs: Researching the VMs at Beinecke
Incredible work Dana,
Wouldn't the sawdust in the ink been used to dry the ink quickly? Also,
it's great to see that there is a colour difference in the inks despite the
fact that on my monitor in the sid files I would have called the 'black' ink
greenish. I'm also intrigued that you find the paint shifting with the 3
suspect authors. As for the missing folio's - I can't agree that the 66 was
a 55 because the next page is 67 and so on. I hope you can piece together
some sort of ordering out of the black binding marks you noted... perhaps
you'll find matching marks several folios away that align with the ones not
punctured. It just would mean that the person who bound (and foliated) the
pages didn't know what order things should go in and so ignored the marks.
John.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of DANA SCOTT
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 2:19 PM
To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: VMs: Researching the VMs at Beinecke
Hello GC,
Yes, I will put in your request to Beinecke concerning the color/ruler
guages. What you don't see in the online copies is the shine/sheen/texture
of the color. I detected 3 separate scribes in the VMs. I also suspect
that each of them penned the text, outlined the drawings, and filled in the
color. This is certainly true, I believe for scribe 2. Now why 3 scribes.
The text of the first scribe is larger and seems to be older, which is seen
in the first group of folios. The work done by the second scribe is the
best work. The text is clear and sharp and smaller that scribe-1, and the
colors are carefully painted in. Scribe-2 strikes me as being younger,
dedicated to the task, with good penmanship, with a more careful and
artistic attention to detail. I believe that these two scribes correspond
to hands A and B. Now scribe-3 is a different character, more flamboyant,
more brash, but still quite good at his work. He strikes as being the
accomplished intern who wants to express some new ideas. I believe this
scribe may have been referred to as the dark painter (a good label for this
individual). This guy is the one who knows it all and wants to impress the
world with his knowledge. His text is done in black ink, quite distinctive
from scribes 1 and 2 (A and B?). He is the one who has worked on the zodiac
folios. He is the toucher upper. This is the guy who went back to retrace
the right breasts of a number of the nymphs in the zodiac volvelles. It
also appears that he added the labels (since they are in black ink) to the
middle circles of nymphs in a few of the volvelles. He also re-outlined
their hair and even "added" the large crown with a cross on top of one of
the prima donna nymphs seen in the zodiac volvelles. His flamboyancy
extends to the more elaborate gallows. This is the guy who drew the fancy
initial gallows seen on a number of the folios. Quite a character. Another
note about the ink. The brown ink was probably brown to begin with. The
black in is still black. What impressed me about the color of text and
paintings is that there is little if any sense fading. Sure, where there
was considerable original exporsure and handling we can see faded text
brought on by exposure and sunlight. The stain of some of the lettering at
to top of many of the folios were all due to the same "accident" (the spill
liquid appears to be oil based). The "Germain" text seen at the top of one
of the botanical herbals is partially faded by this spill. But the text,
drawings, and painting strikes me as being remarkably preserved with its
original shine. What looks like pastel coloring is actually a different
paint used by dark scribe-3. This stands out in f71v. The goat color is
more pink than what is seen online.
The colors of scribe 1, 2, and 3 (or A, B, C) all each different. The text
color of scribes 1 and 2 is brown and for 3 it is black. The blue used by
scribe-1 shows considerable texture and I was impressed by its sparkle when
lighted under magnifying glass. This suggested to me that there is gum
arabic (?) used in the paint. The heavier discoloration (darker blues and
green) seen in some of the plant painting is due to this thick gum settling.
What also caught my eye in some of the thicker gum blue was foreign matter
like fine saw dust particles or maybe dirt dust caught in the blue paint. It
just look dirty. But I think the sparkle (which isn't detected in the Sids
scans) is due to the gum/resin.
Regards,
Dana
>From: "GC" <gc-@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
>To: <vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: VMs: Researching the VMs at Beinecke
>Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:48:34 -0600
>
>Luis, ditto! I have them, but only in photocopy, as poor as the original
>Voynich images. Very good stuff in the Sphaera however, but that's just an
>opinion.
>
>Dana, would it be possible to ask the Beinecke to post a MrSids image that
>contains a color scale and ruler? Too late for me, since I've already
>printed and bound my most valuable copy of the MS, but my memory says the
>colors were far more vivid than they are in the MrSids images. In any
>sense however, it is important to color balance and scale properly.
>
>Thanks,
>
>GC
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Luis Velez
> To: vms-list@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2005 7:38 PM
> Subject: Re: VMs: Researching the VMs at Beinecke
>
>
> Dana,
> Congratulations - enjoy the experience for those of us who
>can't/haven't!
> You might consider checking ff. 83r-105r of MS337, Sphaera; they contain
>astrological volvelles by Anthony Askham and I have always been curious to
>see them (they are not online):
>
> http://webtext.library.yale.edu/beinflat/pre1600.MS337.htm
>
> Happy Hunting!
>
> Luis
>
> On Aug 26, 2005, at 12:26 PM, DANA SCOTT wrote:
>
>
>
> Hello All,
>
> I am currently researching the VMs and accompanying documents at the
>Beinecke Library. It is a wonderful experience to be able to examine the
>original incunabula. If anyone has a burning need for me to examine a
>particular item, please do not hesitate to ask. I will be here next week as
>well.
>
>
> Kind Regards,
> Dana Scott
>
>
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