Bezae "ink...release of acid ... as in other ancient manuscripts, eaten through the parchment, leaving a stencil of many letters" - thickness thinness

Steven Avery

Administrator
"ink...release of acid ... as in other ancient manuscripts, eaten through the parchment, leaving a stencil of many letters"

Codex Bezae (1992)
David C. Parker
https://books.google.com/books?id=qmy92ZolKikC&pg=PA22


We come finally to the materials used by the scribe and to the finished book. The parchment is very carefully prepared and fine. The thinnest leaves are only 1 1/2 thousandths of an inch thick (Cockerell). This may be compared with the Codex Sinaiticus, whose thinnest leaf has large areas under 0.0015 in'; most leaves are between 3 and 6 thousandths of an inch (Milne and Skeat, p. 71). It is not surprising that there are a few lacunae in the material, around which the scribe wrote.

The ink is aptly described by Lowe as olive brown (CLA). The release of acid from the compound has, as in other ancient manuscripts, eaten through the parchment, leaving a stencil of many letters. As is always the ease, the ink has adhered much better to the hair than to the flesh sides.

Unless the manuscript is named Codex Sinaiticus. Then, when the CSP studies try to show an eaten-through parchment, it turns out to be a heavy erasure!

flaking ink - does it expose white parchment colouring over ink?
https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...xpose-white-parchment-colouring-over-ink.117/

"However I do strongly believe that the corrosion was already there. In fact, the area of the specific word was previously erased and corrected. This made the parchment support even thinner than it already is. For this reason the ink affected the parchment in a more severe way creating holes."

So the ink corrosion was more likely erasing corrosion!

Codex Sinaiticus has very little (none that I have seen in the normal pages, of course a heavily damaged New Finds page might be different) of the corrosion to parchment from the ink acids that David C. Parker says frequently occurs in our ancient manuscripts. It is hard to find any stenciling, except if there was an erasure to weaken the parchment.

Yet, once again, the scientists and manuscript experts can not consider the one consistent understanding.

The manuscript is 180 years old, not 1,650 years old.

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An interesting similar point is how the Fountain Pen Network wanted to use Codex Sinaiticus as an example of ink lasting thousands of years without deteriorating the parchment.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/226717-archival-qualities-of-iron-gall-inks/
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator

I've added some photos from the exhibition, starring Mr Gurry (as well as Codex Bezae and Codex Zacynthius).

Steven Avery3/15/2016 11:32 pm
Some assistance requested.

Is the blue ink :
"replacement leaves for missing portions of Matthew, John and Mark."
that Parker places in Lyon, France in the ninth century?

There are sheets with blue ink (and presumably the flesh side of those pages could be replacement pages faded?)
1 blue-black sheet

7 blue-black sheets
310-312-314-316-318-320

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  1. Steven+Facebook+Pic.jpg

    Steven Avery3/15/2016 11:44 pm

    Just an add-on, Scrivener talked of pages in Codex Bezae:

    "some being as clear and fresh as if written yesterday"
    https://books.google.com/books?id=xakGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR10

    Do we think Scrivener was talking of these pages (they are the only super-bright "Sharpie" pages from the pictures).

    ==============


    Beyond all that, who has handled the parchment on a few of these ancient mss?

    Kathryn M. Rudy in "Dirty Books" points out that there are types of information that are lost in books or digitization. (Similar to doctors today who resist actually touching the patient. They lose a lot of basic understanding.)

    And I am especially interested in "testimonials" from individuals who have:

    1) worked with Sinaiticus and another ms.

    (e.g. Skeat and Milne said Alexandrinus was "limp, dead" in comparison to Sinaiticus, a rather fascinating comparison, since Sinaiticus is "exceptional" in so many ways)

    2) handled, or at least viewed, Sinaiticus in England and Leipzig

    Feel free to discuss here, or use my email in the profile.

    Thanks!

    Steven Avery
    Dutchess County,

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    Peter M. Head3/17/2016 9:12 am
    Steven, if you wanted to talk to people who had handled the different parts of Sinaiticus then I would talk to the people who did the photos for the Sinaiticus Project, the actual transcribers (mostly I believe Rachel Kevern and Amy Myshrall and Tim Brown , and the two manuscript leads in the project - David Parker and Scot McKendrick.

  2. Hi Peter,

    Yes there has been communication attempts, some successful, some less so, some waiting in process, with all those individuals, and with individuals in Germany and other areas, even with Hendrickson. Gavin Moorhead has been one of the most helpful, as he is on the CSP website.

    However, "independent" scholars and manuscript experts should be able to give a different perspective than those in the employ or close relationship to the libraries that are the owners and custodians and reputation-builders of the manuscripts. This I learned in the PMP course .. Practical Manuscript Politics 101. :)

    Thus, we do look for scholars and lay people who want to share their manuscript experience, whatever perspective and experience they have on manuscripts.

    Time to put aside former presuppositions and look afresh.

    Steven Avery

 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
https://purebibleforum.com/index.ph...ancient-parchment-mss-bezae-alexandrinus.192/


https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...encil-of-many-letters-thickness-thinness.711/

https://www.purebibleforum.com/inde...the-codex-sinaiticus-project.4480/#post-18642

 
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