25-12-2021, 02:57 PM
A few more thoughts:
1) Yes, the Beinecke Library has records of everyone who has handled the manuscript since they acquired it in 1969. In the US, however, that information is absolutely confidential. Anyone who goes to any library to look at any book or document is assured confidentiality. The Beinecke cannot ever release that information, about any of their holdings, not just the VMS.
2) DNA sampling of the parchment is much more promising than looking for human cellular debris, but only if/when there is an extremely large database of parchment of known date/place of origin to compare it to. The current work on assembling DNA profiles of medieval documents is being done using English documents, which isn't really going to do us a lot of good. We would need a database of hundreds of thousands of samples from around the world. Maybe someday, but not anytime soon.
3) The conservators at Yale know what they are doing, and I am certain that they would have saved any debris found in the gutters or on the surface during conservation treatment.
1) Yes, the Beinecke Library has records of everyone who has handled the manuscript since they acquired it in 1969. In the US, however, that information is absolutely confidential. Anyone who goes to any library to look at any book or document is assured confidentiality. The Beinecke cannot ever release that information, about any of their holdings, not just the VMS.
2) DNA sampling of the parchment is much more promising than looking for human cellular debris, but only if/when there is an extremely large database of parchment of known date/place of origin to compare it to. The current work on assembling DNA profiles of medieval documents is being done using English documents, which isn't really going to do us a lot of good. We would need a database of hundreds of thousands of samples from around the world. Maybe someday, but not anytime soon.
3) The conservators at Yale know what they are doing, and I am certain that they would have saved any debris found in the gutters or on the surface during conservation treatment.
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