This is a great day! The scans from the 2015 Wiktenauer fundraiser are now available. It has been a long wait, but very much worth it. In particular, I am finally able to look at a high quality color version of the important Lovino manuscript. I have described earlier how significant that work was in many respects, and seeing it with such clarity is quite an experience…

The only downside was that I am not sure of the status of these scans, as far as sharing them with others goes. Out of curiosity, I gave a look at the Gallica archive, and lo and behold, the scans are actually publicly available!

Here is an example of how good the published plates are, compared to what was available before:

Plate XI as it appears in the Raymond J. Lord collection file

The plate is redrawn in the edition by Lionel Lauvernay. It is much clearer, but some details are of course lost…

The current resolution offered by the National French Library. All the details are clear, including hand position.

Of course the full original text is also up here, for everyone to use.

Having this manuscript widely accessible was a sort of childhood dream for me, as I had some of the plates in books that I used to read again and again. Mad props to the Wiktenauer for pushing this in the open! And thanks to all the contributors who ended up funding this… I suppose without the fundraiser the manuscript would still be hidden.