Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...

screen. To compare the watermarks, digitised beta radiography
photos were evaluated with a computer-based image
analysis.
Woodward’s catalogue of watermarks in printed Italian
maps – which contains nearly 330 Italian maps from the
Franco Novacco Collection of the Newberry Library, Chicago,
as well as additional holdings – set completely new
standards. All of the watermarks are published as beta radiography
photos. It is the first publication to consistently use
the classification standards proposed by the International
Association of Paper Historians.
Watermark research has remained unable to clarify the
facts regarding what was the perhaps most controversial
map discovery of the 20 th century. When in 1965 the socalled
Vinland map became known, a critical evaluation of
its origin was given great importance. The object of interest
was a drawn map depicting parts of the American east
coast. It was ostensibly from the 15 th century, a date considerably
earlier than the expeditions of Christopher Columbus.
Because it is drawn on parchment, there are no watermarks
to assist the dating, and thus ink and radiocarbon
analyses were undertaken. In 1974 Theodor Gerardy declared
the map a fake. Nevertheless, the map, bought by
Yale University in 1959 with the support of Paul Mellon, is
still today considered authentic by the owner. Although the
parchment it is drawn on is old, it was found that one of
the inks used for the document was produced on basis of a
specific titanium dioxide which was not manufactured before
1923. Thus, sceptics consider the map a forgery, setting
this date as the earliest possible point in time it could
have been drawn. One might see evidence here that forgers
have also carefully followed the results of watermark research,
thus preferring in some cases not paper, but other
writing materials.
Literature: Gerardy, Die Vinlandkarte; Große-Stoltenberg,
Wasserzeichen; Große-Stoltenberg, Der Große Atlas; Heawood,
The Use of Watermarks; Heawood, Watermarks;
Kazmeier, Aus der Geschichte des Papiers; The Große-
Stoltenberg Collection, overview; Woodward, The Analysis
of Paper; Woodward, Catalogue of Watermarks.
The Significance of Manuscript Dating
as Demonstrated by Codex 214 of the
Schottenkloster in Vienna
48
F.S. (C.P.-K.)
This manuscript, owned by the famous jurist Johannes Polczmacher,
is one of the few pieces of evidence for the humanistic
interests of the Viennese professor, about which
we otherwise know only through his will, dated 1453. The
will lists eighty-two books that he bequeathed to the Schottenstift,
including thirty volumes with classical or humanistic
texts. Codex 214 includes, in addition to eight comedies by
Plautus and numerous letters of the Florentine Poggio Bracciolini,
an early humanist, also two works by Cicero (Laelius
– De amicitia and De officiis), which, according to notes by
the scribe at the end of the texts, were completed in 1446
and 1447. Through an exact analysis of the watermarks it
has been possible to date an undated text, also included in
the codex, to the latter half of the 1440s, the constitutional
treatise De ortu et auctoritate imperii Romani by Eneas
Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II, 1458–1464). Thus it is possible
to determine that this transmission is one of the oldest
copies, if not the oldest copy, of this extremely interesting
text, which was dedicated by Piccolomini in March 1446 to
the later Holy Roman Emperor, Friedrich III. This is important
evidence for reception of the humanist, which until now
has been underestimated, in circles close to the University
of Vienna.
This example shows how important it is for the transmission
history of texts and intellectual currents to date texts as
exactly as possible and thus also their reception and spread.
In this case, of the various approaches to scholarly dating,
research on watermarks offers itself as one of the best
methods.
Codex 214 consists of five sections, of which two are dated:
I fol. 1–12 dated 1446 Scribe A
II fol. 13–84 dated 1447 Scribe A
III fol. 85–106, 119–128 “about 1445–50” Scribe B
IV fol. 107–118 “about 1451–56” unwritten
V fol. 129–229 “about 1445–50” Scribe C
(possibly
two hands)
The dating of the undated sections of the manuscript was
based on the following observations, which could be derived
on the basis of images of the watermarks (Ill. 11): Section
III was written by a different scribe than Sections I and
II, but the paper used contains the identical watermark pair
“Cloverleaf” (A+B) as found in the first two sections, which
suggests that the third section was written at the same
time. This can be confirmed on the basis of dates of manuscripts
in Klosterneuburg: the same watermark pair is found
in both the Codex 926 of the Klosterneuburg library, written
in 1445, and the Grundbuch 7/2 of the monastery
archives, which was drawn up in 1446. In the Piccard-Online
Collection there are also a number of marks that are related
to this pair: No. 126976 (1446), No. 126977 (1449),
No. 126978 (1449), No. 126979 (1445) and No. 126981
(1447). In addition to paper with the watermark “Cloverleaf”,
paper with the watermark “Scales in circle” (C+D)
was used in Section III. This also has corresponding watermarks
in the Piccard-Online Collection, namely No. 116702
(1448) and No. 116703 (1448). This compound corroboration
of these watermarks in different manuscripts and
archival materials for the years 1445–1449 makes dating
Section III to “about 1445/1450”, and thus the treatise by
Eneas Silvius Piccolomini described above, plausible.
The situation is similar for Section V. This section, whose
scribe was neither Scribe A of Sections I and II nor Scribe B
of Section III, contains the watermark “Cloverleaf” in an
identical form as in Sections I, II, and III, so that the considerations
with regard to Section III are also valid here. The
watermark “Scales in circle” (G) is found in only one sheet
and can be disregarded for the dating.
Section IV consists in a layer of sheets that were left unwritten.
The watermark found here, “Triple mountain in cir-