Emir Filipović, a research assistant at the University of Sarajevo, happened to be thumbing through the manuscript when he noticed the inky paw prints.
“It’s not very often that a researcher can come across curious things while sifting through monotonous and dull archival registers,” Filipović told National Geographic.
He shared the above image on Twitter, and news about the find spread.
The manuscript’s text had nothing to do with cats, but instead was a rather dry Republic of Dubrovnik letter to traders and nobles.
“The document on which prints were made dates from March 11, 1445,” Filipović told BalkanInsight. “The prints were most likely made while the document was being made, or some time then…but the possibility that they were made later cannot be excluded.”
He added, “While the writer was writing the document a cat probably passed by him and since the paint was near the book…the cat spilled it, dipped his paws in it and passed over the document and thus left its trace in history.”
Based on the prints, it looks like the cat marched on the manuscript, coming from the left, and then made a left turn on the right page before stepping off. It was just a mundane, typical house-cat moment, but one that might have been preserved for hundreds of years.
Read more at Discovery News
How come the cat is walking backwards? If the ink on its paws came from the wet writing, that is. The only known incunable (printed book) with contemporary cat tracks has been known for centuries, not 'just discovered'. Some lonely librarian, knowing this, wanted fame as finding the first cat pawed manuscript.
ReplyDeleteAncient printing ink was slow drying, but writing inks dry in a few seconds; and if we are to believe the cat walked through wet ink - why is the ink on the paws so much darker and abundant than that of the writing? National Geographic has fallen for a hoax, and been made use of to back up 'authenticity' for a more learned periodical.
Either a MS of little value has been deliberately defaced (has anyone checked the original?) or the prints were on a clear plastic sheet placed over it before photography. Assuming the cat walked from left to right, after having knocked over an inkhorn, it would have had to have been uncharacteristically unconcerned about wading through the mess, and careless to the point of soaking all four feet.
I don't believe it!