This is brilliant! You're right about the Chorttlemuffle effect. I've had the experience of tracking down a source an finding out that someone made it out of whole cloth sometime in the 60's due to... frequently, racism, or orientalism, or something of the sort. It's only now that people are waking up to the problem. To be fair to previous generations, consulting manuscripts is easier now than it was half a century ago.
You're quite right, it's usually racism or orientalism! But while it's true consulting manuscripts is easier today, it was never difficult to melt sugar in water to check certain claims before you made them...
Love this. I am experiencing a deep Chortlemuffin effect while writing a a book about simple lunar astronomy - most texts assume everyone lives in the northern Hemisphere, and the repeated upside-down and back-to-front references that get repeated are multitude! Gah. I am glad to have discovered this word, thank you. Continuing to love these peeks inside your journey 🤗 (I found you via your moon and sun articles)
Those blues are so rich! It sounds, from what you've described, that the coverage you're achieving on paper with the "fake" (or better, "pedestrian"?) blue is less transparent than with real lapis lazuli? Is that right? It's reminding me of gouache ...
It depends: real lapis lazuli, when ground, contains plenty of calcite so the effect is pretty much the same. It's extracted lazurite (ultramarine) that is transparent because it's been rid of the calcite. The reason this reminds you of gouache is because gouache is made by adding chalk (calcite again) to the pigments to increase opacity!
So interesting! 🌿
Thank you!
This is brilliant! You're right about the Chorttlemuffle effect. I've had the experience of tracking down a source an finding out that someone made it out of whole cloth sometime in the 60's due to... frequently, racism, or orientalism, or something of the sort. It's only now that people are waking up to the problem. To be fair to previous generations, consulting manuscripts is easier now than it was half a century ago.
You're quite right, it's usually racism or orientalism! But while it's true consulting manuscripts is easier today, it was never difficult to melt sugar in water to check certain claims before you made them...
Love this. I am experiencing a deep Chortlemuffin effect while writing a a book about simple lunar astronomy - most texts assume everyone lives in the northern Hemisphere, and the repeated upside-down and back-to-front references that get repeated are multitude! Gah. I am glad to have discovered this word, thank you. Continuing to love these peeks inside your journey 🤗 (I found you via your moon and sun articles)
Ah yes! Medieval people who seldom travelled south of the Equator had an excuse, anyone more recent not so much...
Those blues are so rich! It sounds, from what you've described, that the coverage you're achieving on paper with the "fake" (or better, "pedestrian"?) blue is less transparent than with real lapis lazuli? Is that right? It's reminding me of gouache ...
It depends: real lapis lazuli, when ground, contains plenty of calcite so the effect is pretty much the same. It's extracted lazurite (ultramarine) that is transparent because it's been rid of the calcite. The reason this reminds you of gouache is because gouache is made by adding chalk (calcite again) to the pigments to increase opacity!
Fascinating!
Thank you!
Omar sure knew his business! Thanks, that was mighty interesting!
Clever forgers!