Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
@lisafdavis
Aug 18, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
Spending the afternoon @BeineckeLibrary photographing Wilfrid #Voynich 's scrapbook of press clippings heralding the "news" of the manuscript's decoding and attribution to Roger Bacon, and found this marvelous bit of editorial snark from the Providence Tribune, April 22, 1921:
Am now looking for an excuse to use the expression "I don't give two whoops in a rain barrel!"
Here's another good one, from the New York Evening Post, May 3, 1921. Apparently it is bad form to snort with laughter in the Beinecke Library reading room.
OK, OK, last one, I swear.* Commercial Tribune (Cincinnati), April 27, 1921:

* it will probably not be the last one
Here's a twofer:
All of this publicity led to Newbold getting an honorary degree from Penn in 1921, partly in recognition of his work deciphering the #Voynich manuscript. Oops.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Lisa Fagin Davis

Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @lisafdavis

Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Dec 28, 2022
I know we're all obsessed with the stream of discoveries about #receptiogate, the revolving-door website updates, & Rossi's doubling-down claims of innocence that are easily disproven, but I also want to talk about her #fragmentoogy work, which is troubling in several respects...
As many of you know, I have been working closely with @FragmentariumMS and many other scholars for decades to develop best-practices for cataloguing, data-modeling, and digital reconstructions of dismembered manuscripts, i.e. #fragmentology
To her credit, Rossi is doing that too, working to recontruct recently-dismembered Books of Hours, transcribing them to allow for deep analysis of the recovered liturgy. This is a very worthy goal, & the transcriptions, while not always correct, are useful. So that’s great! But…
Read 18 tweets
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Dec 27, 2022
One of the astonishing parts about this update is that Rossi admits to "colourising" b/w photos! Plaigerism aside, & whether the "colourising" really happened in this case or not, the idea of taking a b/w photo and quietly colorizing it is incredibly misleading! ImageImage
Tacitly editing images of fragments seems to be her MO: adding borders where there are none, cropping for consistency of size, inserting a mis=matched binding, adding fake flyleaves, colorizing b/w images. How can readers trust such a deceptive author?
I've never encountered anything quite like it in the digital realm. It is analogous to the tacit "restoration" work 19th-century forgers practised on illuminated mss, like the one I describe here (a forgery Peter identified!): manuscriptroadtrip.wordpress.com/2019/08/28/man…
Read 5 tweets
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Dec 25, 2022
Look, people, it's not that hard. The rules of #Fragmentology are simple and finite. 1) If you are going to piece a dismembered manuscript back together online, do it with intellectual honesty.
2) If there's are missing leaves, show us where it is by indicating lacunae, as in this screenshot of my own work on the Beauvais Missal:
3) If there's no binding, don't photoshop the reconstruction into one. Digital reconstructions aren't about "fixing" physical imperfections by adding elements to make it look pretty.
Read 5 tweets
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Aug 9, 2022
OK, people, you worked hard to get me to 10K followers, so here is your reward! An epic 62-Tweet thread about the #Voynich manuscript coming your way, starting NOW!
1. First things first. The #Voynich manuscript (VMS from now on) is a real object. Please always keep that in mind! It is a medieval manuscript (more on that in a minute) that belongs to the @BeineckeLibrary at Yale University, where it has been MS 408 since it was given in 1969.
2. I have seen it on multiple occasions and can confirm this. It is not imaginary. It is not fake. It is not a gift from aliens. But what IS it?
Read 67 tweets
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Jul 28, 2022
Remember a few weeks ago when I gave a lecture @imc_leeds about my reconstruction of the Beauvais Missal & announced that leaf no. 113 had landed in my inbox the day before? Now that I’m caught up on other things, I can work on placing it in the reconstruction. Here’s how…
Step 1: identify recto & verso. Generally a straightforward task…look for the binding holes (i.e. the gutter), which, in a manuscript that reads left -> right will be on the left of the recto side. In this case, the leaf is heavily trimmed on all sides, so no binding holes!
No binding holes, no problem. Just look at the text, and figure out which side continues the text from the other. In this case, though, the leaf is framed and only one side is visible! How to tell recto from verso, then? Is it impossible? Certainly not!
Read 13 tweets
Lisa Fagin Davis Profile picture
Jun 10, 2022
Ever heard of Cistercian numerals? I hadn’t either until yesterday, and after hours of diving down lots of rabbit holes, I’m here to tell you all about this fascinating chapter in the story of medieval numeration!
We all know about the two dominant numeral systems in the European Middle Ages: Roman numerals and Arabic numerals. Roman numerals are good for labeling and expressing a single number like a date, but Arabic numerals won the fight for numerical supremacy...
...because of their superior functionality for arithmetic (try doing a complex calculation using Roman numerals) and inclusion of the all-important 0.
Read 16 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(