New images: Marci letter wax

[asteckley]

   

it wouldn't really change it that much

I am asking because, in Lisa's photos, there seems to be a mismatch between the wax seals on the letter and the yellowish stains on the inside cover.  The shape and color don't quite match, the angle of the line between the two stains is strange, and their separation seems to be short by a small but significant amount.

Moreover, that sheet of paper lining the cover is quite recent, isn't it?  IIRC, Wilfrid was in the habit of removing the lining of covers, in the hope of finding valuable letters reused as scrap.  And one can see the remnants of the original lining at the bottom, about 2 cm below the edge of the current lining.  No?

All the best, --stolfi

ACTUALLY... I just noticed this: the fact that the shape and color of the marks don't match is a little odd, but it's hard to say how the bleed through the paper would occur and what it would do to the resulting color of the marks left on the cover. BUT, there is a much bigger problem.   

Looking at the photograph that Lisa took showing the alignment, it makes no sense at all that the wax marks on the letter lined up with those marks on the inside cover of the VMS. To do so, the letter would have had to be unfolded in a way that is clearly against the folds that it has been folded in and then the letter would also have had to  extend outside the range of the VMS cover.  It really does not make sense that those marks have anything to do with the wax residue on the letter itself.

[ADDED: Actually, Lisa did point this problem out  (saying "and it's difficult to see how the letter could have been folded and laid into the manuscript in such a way as to leave those stains."). I just didn't see the extent of the problem till looking closer at the letter.]