First book from Shakespeare's library found?

[beowulf]

I am putting this under science because of the tools used to actually try and confirm that the book was at one time owned by Shakespeare.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappen...own-book-from-shakespeare-s-library-1.6041155

It's pretty cool how modern tech can help find hidden secrets from centuries ago.

"But reading those notes was no easy feat, as the book had been literally washed, trimmed and rebound in 1731. Weir says he used digital imagining and ultraviolet light to reconstruct the annotations.
"Sure enough, I got all sorts of good results — signatures and marginal comments," he said.
"That's the sort of thing that told me that it was Shakespeare's book because, well, he signed it a number of times. And there are notes that say that he used this or that passage for this or that play.""

WS below believed to be his denoting his notes on the right.

Click to read more...

 

[tarheelhockey]

That's an unbelievable find. One of those moments where you realize just how much is out there waiting to be discovered. Assuming this is validated (and I see no reason it wouldn't be) it will be a footnote in countless works on Shakespeare going forward.

Imagine the air in the room when they viewed the UV scan and saw that "WS"

 

[x Tame Impala]

What a cool find for that Professor. Wonder what else can be discovered just by shining UV light onto things.

AFAIK they do this with art as well, and it shows brush strokes and layering unseen for hundreds of years

 

[beowulf]

What a cool find for that Professor. Wonder what else can be discovered just by shining UV light onto things.

AFAIK they do this with art as well, and it shows brush strokes and layering unseen for hundreds of years

Indeed, canvas can be very expensive, especially hundreds of years ago so many artists, even the best known, would reuse their canvases if they did not like the final product or if a commission fell through.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Indeed, canvas can be very expensive, especially hundreds of years ago so many artists, even the best known, would reuse their canvases if they did not like the final product or if a commission fell through.

Its weird to realize how some things that are just so normal and standard for us now used to be complete luxuries hundreds of years ago. The article mentioned how rare and expensive books were to own in the 16th century. Which makes sense, but definitely something taken for granted now.