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A
Multispectral Critical Edition
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| As
the final table on the previous page shows, Livingstone appears to be
consistent in the type of ink he uses for his diary entries. He writes
with iron gall ink for the first five pages of the diary (297c/102-06),
switches to Zingifure for 41 pages (297c/107-15, 297b/116-19,
297c/120-133, 297b/132-45), employs an ink that appears to combine
Zingifure and iron gall for half a page (297b/146), then continues with
iron gall for most of the remaining 17½ pages
(297b/146-163). |
The deviations from
Livingstone’s ink use pattern, especially the presence of
pages wholly in Zingifure ink near the end of the second copy-book,
suggest that Livingstone planned out the overall structure of his
copy-books and did not write all his diary pages in a continuous
series. Rather, he allocated certain pages for notes and on some of
these pages wrote the notes ahead of time, hence the presence of
Zingifure ink in those sections of the diary where he was otherwise
using iron gall (see 297b/157, 297b/158, portions of 297b/162,
297b/163). Other pages he left blank for notes, but as he came to the
end of the diary he ended up using them instead for diary entries in
iron gall ink (207b/159, 297b/160, portions of 297b/162).
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Figure
1. Livingstone, 1871 Field
Diary, 297b/133-162, spectral ratio.
The deleted area of interest is on the upper right-hand side.
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These practices help
account for the unusual textual configuration of 297b/162. Livingstone,
it seems, designated this page for a note and initially jotted down a
few observations as well as a list of supplies needed in Zingifure ink.
Later when he had filled the preceding pages with entries in iron gall
ink, he returned to this page and wrote across the bottom portion of
the page. Next, he turned the page 90 degrees clockwise and wrote
additional entries in iron gall ink over the Zingifure note already at
the center of the page. Finally, he crossed out the entire central
section of the page using iron gall ink. As a result, iron gall and
Zingifure ink cover 297b/162 in almost equal proportions, the text
contains both "note" and "journal" entries, and the resulting
manuscript page presents the reader with no less than four textual
layers: the text of The
Standard,
the note in Zingifure, the diary entries in iron gall, and the
cancellation in iron gall.
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Figures 2, 3. Livingstone, 1871 Field Diary, 297b/162,
detail:
color image (left); spectral ratio (right). |
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The above only applies
to
Livingstone’s use of ink in the diary entries proper. The
inking of his headers (his page number succeeded by the word "Journal"
or "Note") follows a different pattern. He uses iron gall for the first
six headers (297c/102-06), then switches to Zingifure for the rest of
the diary without
exception, even on the later
pages that are otherwise composed with iron gall ink or with a
combination of Zingifure and iron gall. This pattern indicates that
Livingstone began pre-numbering the pages of the diary at some point
during its composition.
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Figure
4. Livingstone, 1871 Field
Diary, 297b/151,
spectral ratio.
Header with both Zingifure and iron gall ink.
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| At present, however,
it is
not possible to determine when this happened with any precision. The
main run of Livingstone’s headers takes the following form: |
| Diary
Pages |
Form
of Header |
| 297c/123-31, first copy-book |
Livingstone’s page number
& "Journal" |
| 297c/132-133, first copy-book |
Livingstone’s page number
& "Note" |
| 297b/132-56, second copy-book |
Livingstone’s page number
& "Journal" |
| 297b/157-58, second copy-book |
Livingstone’s
page number & "Note" |
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| This configuration
indicates that Livingstone may have begun pre-numbering his pages with
the first page of this sequence, 297c/123, or with any of the pages up
to 297b/146. On the latter the use of the combination of Zingifure and iron
gall ink for the main diary entry first reveals that Livingstone is
pre-numbering his pages. (The initial run of headers, 297c/102-15,
297b/116-19, 297c/120-22, and those at the end of the diary,
297b/159-63, take a more complex, but less structured form and will be
discussed in the following pages). Additional study of the inks and
their ink spectra may yield further information. Click here
to open a window showing all of Livingstone’s headers. |
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