University College MS. 5

Accompanying Material

“William Smith […] used galls to revive faded passages. In no. 5 he tried an experiment. He applied the galls to the two bottom lines of the text and wrote underneath; ‘Ultimae istae duae lineae (ceteris jam multo nigriores) gallis aqua macerates delinitae errant Aug 28 anno 1700. Notent posteri quamdiu ista coloris differentia permanebit; et quid commodi vel damni inde sequetur’. The two lines are still blacker than the rest, and the parchment is stained brown, but no worse effects have followed. But Smith tried his galls on an erased inscription at the top of the page in vain, and so made impossible the use of other methods of recovering it.” (Hunt, p. 13)