brian longJan 30, 2018

been working for a while on this weird manuscript fragment of a medieval medical text from around the turn of the 12th c.

got the hang of it, I think, but it is an odd little beast: the script is an odd mixture of two quite different scripts. there are weird mistakes, rewritten parts, corrections, etc.

but I think I've actually come to like it

(the two close-ups read 'aristologie' and 'findit')

https://scholar.social/media/de45DlYlBdq0pvec7EU https://scholar.social/media/qbhRuZxRVkmcpJBHUvA https://scholar.social/media/2Js9QzOK3LObGxze-_A

Show threadbrian longJan 30, 2018

when you spend a lot of time with a particular manuscript, you get some sense of what copying a manuscript must have been like:

how demanding it must have been to carefully write a particular script, on the uncertain surface of an animal's skin (with pores, holes from bug bites, etc.), with a feather pen that got dull as you went along, while being vigilant about not screwing up the Latin (or whatever)

you get more impressed as you go along, even w/a MS that may not look like much at first

Show threadbrian long

I love the rs in this MS (the first image reads 'res corporis') and the long i's of the L+i ligature are nice, too (the second reads 'De pilis,' where you can really see the pores of the parchment)

https://scholar.social/media/pJa7JkqZvevDa1S5zIE https://scholar.social/media/w-lOb2EctukVF-cbwz0

Jan 30, 2018 at 12:37amWeb