This is a letter exchanged 230 years ago between Queen Mary Antoinette of France and Axel von Felsberg of Northern Europe. Although Fairsenberg can easily be thought of as a character in Versailles Rose, it's true to see it in handwriting. With such a sense of reality.
Eight of the 15 letters in the French National Library of Ancient Books are blackened, and they are also mystery novels that have lasted for 150 years among historians. It was finally exposed in broad daylight and posted on ScienceAdvancesfor a day.
The team used X-ray analysis, known as fluorescence spectroscopy (Fluorescence Spectroscopy), which is often used to analyze ancient ink. The analysis results show that the ink used is Gallic ink. In addition, the sender also found that Mary Antoinette's letter was in someone else's handwriting. Since this is similar to Felsenberg's handwriting, it is thought that this may be the reason why Felsenber copied and kept the original.
Anne Michelin, a restorer at the Center for the Restoration of Ancient documents (Centre De Recherche Sur La Conservation), a former lead author of the paper, replied to an email interview from Gizmodo.
So Felsenberg's self-directed and self-acting Michelin added that instead of keeping copies of the letter, it was usually done in the past, where there was also the purpose of keeping the content of the exchange and not forgetting the resume. Of course, it's not surprising that there are more ideas.
The official website of Versailles also has the following description.
Just like revealing such single-minded thoughts, the painted parts leave words such as "loved ones", "longing", "madness" and so on. Wow, Felson. (tears).
Who are you reviewing?
Their relationship seems to be a semi-open secret, but what matters is how the letter was censored and revised. Who is it? for what? With regard to that mystery, the ink composition of the pen holder and the correction department was investigated by fluorescence X-ray (XRF) spectroscopy.
XRF is a technology that also plays an important role in the PIXL of Mars probe Passavilance, which investigates the composition of rock deposits and looks for fossilized microbes. Taking the chemical properties of all things as a clue, we can solve the mysteries of all ages from ancient times to modern times.
"although it is not a new technology, as the authors of the paper have said, it is becoming the standard of techniques that can be easily used in laboratories and museums." the interviewee is Marine Cotte, a beam line researcher at the European Synchrotron radiation Research Institute (ESRF) (unrelated to the paper). Mr. Cotte is an experienced man who investigated the composition of Egyptian ink 5, 000 years ago. This time the team investigated ink from the French Revolution, which is much newer than ancient Egypt.
In conclusion, the ink of the correction department is also consistent with that of Felsenber's pen. In addition, in the identification of the handwriting appraiser, the text covered in the correction department is also consistent with Felsenber's handwriting. For these reasons, the count himself examined and revised the line.
Matthias Alfeld Associate Professor of Molecular and structural Archaeology at Delft Institute of Technology in the Netherlands commented on the above results: "I want to do well. The machines used by the team are on the market, but the data processing part is very innovative. Using devices used in other areas, I succeeded in finding hidden patterns in XRF data. It's a step forward. "
The most elucidated is that there are only 8 out of 15, so he added: "there is still a lot that can be done for the community in this field."
In addition to letters, XRF can also be applied to things that are rewritten, or just to fix articles that are blurred due to poor preservation. I scanned Picasso's painting and saw another painting! There was a story like this a few years ago, and that one also used X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. It's going to be bald.
