Primary instances of each "Rusty" stain
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The four conspicuous "Rusty" stains in quires 19 and 20 (RustyA, RustyB, RustyC, and RustyD) were apparently created by a single incident in which some liquid or semi-liquid material was spilled on distinct folios of the VMS.
The binding of those two quires at the time of the accident is uncertain: they may have been just a set of loose bifolios, or the two quires were bound separately, or they were bound together. In any case, will refer to them as "the book" for simplicity.
Apparently, soon after the accident the book was closed (with quire 19 on top of quire 20) without first cleaning the spills. As a result, each blob of material was squished and smeared on the opposite panel, creating two or more primary instances of each stain, shown below:
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The dimensions given are the approximate diameter of the core area (see below).
After the book was closed, the liquid component of that material seeped through the parch and created additional secondary instances of each stain on panels before and after those with the primary instances. In several cases, the amount of liquid that got through was enough to stain the facing panel of the adjacent flap, and continue propagating from there. The panels with instances of each stain (primaries in bold) are
| RustyA | f100r, f100v, f101v2, f101r2. |
| RustyB | f99r, f99v, f100r, f100v, f101v2, f101r2, f101r1, f101v1, f102v2, f102r2, f102r1, f102v1. |
| RustyC | f102v2, f102r2, f102r1, f102v1, f103r, f103v, f104r, f104v. |
| RustyD | f102r1, f102v1, f103r, f103v, f104r, f104v, f105r, f105v. |
The following diagrams show the apparent path from primary stains (stronger color) to secondary stains (lighter colors) through the folded bifolios:
| Folding | RustyA | RustyB | RustyC | RustyD |
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The first diagram shows the nesting and normal folding of the bifolios as currently seen in the bound book, when it is closed. The small unlabeled section next to flap f102.2 is the narrower flap f102.3, which was not affected by the stains. In these diagrams, the strongest color indicates the primary instances, and lighter colors the secondary ones. Color strokes on opposite sides of a flap indicate seepage through the parch. Dotted lines indicate the transfer of staining material between facing panels of different flaps by contact.
The images in this folder are clipped sections of the panels affected by each of the stains. To facilitate their understanding, the panels are numbered and listed in "bookworm chewing order", as they would be encountered by a worm that tunneled through the closed book from front to back. See the "Folding" diagram above. The full-page images were clipped so that all instances of the same stain are approximately aligned. Also, the panels where the hypothetical worm entered a new flap are shown in the original orientation; the panels where it emerged from a flap are flipped left-to-right.
The primary instances of the stains, particularly of RustyD, have a central core area with intense color and sharp boundary, surrounded by a lighted fuzzy halo that fades out to nothing a few mm from the core. A smaller core is present in some of the secondary instances, where the leaked liquid was sufficient to pool in the space between two panels, but its color is lighter. This pattern suggests that the material was an emulsion or suspension with two components, only one of which could seep through the parch in significant amounts.
In the core of the primary instances one can see many small thin flakes of a dark reddish-brown color:
They are too numerous and widespread to have come from the painting; it appears that they were present in the spilled material.
It is not evident what was the precise situation and sequence of events that resulted in the spilling of the material and the closing of the book without cleaning it.
The accident may be easier to reconstruct is we assume that the bifolios were unbound at the time. The accident apparently happened when the book was open, as for reading, on quite 20, but the fold-outs of quire 19 were fully folded in, as they are now in the bound book when closed.
If the bifolios were not bound, the small blob of material that created stain RustyA may have come from the material that created RustyB, as the bifolios were closed and re-stacked.
Based on the appearance of the stains and the flakes in the core regions, I would guess that the material was some foodstuff, like a sauce or stew. The flakes could be bits of crust from fried or baked meat, or bits of skins of some vegetable, like bell peppers or tomatoes.
Last edited on 2025-08-17 21:58:56 by stolfi
