Mick Harper
Site Admin

In: London
|
|
|
|
I have been sent this
For those of you completely ignorant, pinniped refers to the various seal species. This is also the first time I've ever heard of sealskin being used for manuscripts. And, according to the authors, it does not need tanning which really foxed me.
But my big gripe about the (quite valuable in itself) project is the absence of a single carbon dating anywhere. Don't these people know that monasteries were full of later fakes? What's the point of spending vast sums of money running tests on 11-13th century codices without spending tiny sums of money establishing they (or a sample of them) really are 11-13th century? Really dumb. Or really trusting.
If they are genuine we can take comfort from the absence of any earlier manuscripts. If the library of the most powerful monastery (Clairvaux) of the richest monastic order (the Cistercians) doesn't have any, it's unlikely anyone else does!
|
|