Originally posted by David Orsam
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Yes, it is true. Until more recent centuries (say from about 300 or so A.D., when monks began keeping records in religious orders' buildings (later monastaries) record keeping was not well practiced as we would consider it (i.e., on paper). You did have cuneiform and hieroglyphics and carvings, but they all were bulky (even when used (like the Sumerians or Assyrians with cuneiform tablets) for business records (usually lists) or for government mail (as in the Egyptian empire). For our purposes we find that the extant written world of the ancients is fairly limited - which is why we have only two extant or nearly extant plays by Menander (who wrote scores more), or even only 23 plays or so Plautus (who also wrote more). One of the saddest losses of documents I know of is that of Terence. A book with six plays by him is the total number of his plays produced in his lifetime - but we know from other sources that he had written three other unproduced plays, that were being shipped to Rome, and the ship was wrecked with their loss - a loss that helped send him into a physical decline that killed him.
Disasters of nature or partly by man (such as shipwrecks or fires) or wholly by man (warfare) have destroyed large amounts of ancient documents, so that the finding of any (like the finding of Menander's play "Dyskolos" on papyri in the 1950s) is a wonderful event. About three or four years back there was the discovery of a hitherto unknown mathematical book by Archimides, found on a palymset (spelling?) - it had been used by some monk to copy down another text over the original text, and the use of modern technology enabled us to read the original book again. But these are (tragically) few and far between.
The literature and writings since the beginning of the collapse of the Roman Empire are mostly religious at first, until poetry starts reviving interest in story telling. Since art was useful in telling stories from the Bible it begins to appear. It's high points are a series of rennaisance moments, beginning in the 13th Century, again in the 15th Century into the 16th Century (the one most of us recall) and then it just spreads throughout Europe. I must add that in other parts of the world writing and art had flourished (especially in China and the Indus Valley, and in Islam) but I have been stressing European based survival of communicative items because the rest seem less useful here. The survival of written literature in Europe would be aided immensely by the development of Guttenburg's press and movable type.
Most of this is known to all of us from our younger days as students. But
we frequently push it aside because we take it for granted. Other aids in preserving old writings exist, including photographs. And they are useful, despite a comment of yous dismissing them when used to photograph "Old Masters" which should be studied closely in the original. I agree. Go to the Louvre and look closely at Gericault's brush strokes on the "Wreck of the Meduse"* if you are writing a study on his work.
But what if the painting is no longer extant? Well, many paintings of the last milenium have vanished, and a large number disappeared, were stolen, or were destroyed in the present century in two world wars. Suddenly those photographs become important - not the best evidence of a court of law, but given the situation they may become second best evidence because nothing else is available. I have a book in my library here concerning Manet's portrait of the execution of Emperor Maximilian. Fortunately we have a copy Manet did that was based on his initial painting, but the original was destroyed by order of the then government of France under Emperor Napoleon III. Fragmets were photographed of the destroyed painting, and can be compared to Manet's later copy from memory. The book also mentioned another artist's historical painting of the Battle of Solferino (1860) which, unfortunately, is black and white - the original has vanished. An art student or scholar would have to depend on the photograph in such a case.
In this case we are discussing evidence (if it really considered such) of pawn tickets found on Catherine Eddowes. These have never resurfaced since the late 19th Century, and therefore we are noting what was said of them in newspaper and other sources. Hardly really first rate evidence at all - that photo of the picture of the battle of Solferino looks better and better as evidence in comparison - and that picture was painted over a decade before 1888. Whatever you say about the contents of the words on the tickets becomes a matter of the personal opinion of the person discussing the letters involved and the actual anagrams that can be created. I find it hard to really agree with any interpretation about these - until somebody turns up either the tickets or a good, clear photograph showing them and what was written on them.
Have a good day,
Jeff
[*Unnecessary point to this thread - last month was the two hundreath anniversary of the tragedy off Senagal of the French frigate, "Le Meduse". I noticed that in the newspapers last month.]
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